The company that owns the master licence to the UPS Store in Canada has been penalized $14,500 for failing to have a proper recycling program in place across its 61 locations in British Columbia.
The decision, handed down May 21 by director of the Environmental Management Act Kelly Mills, cite provincial regulations that require producers of packing and printed paper products to have an extended producer responsibility program.
The program requires producers—including manufacturers, distributors and retailers—to take responsibility for the life-cycle of the products they sell, use or distribute.
In B.C., such producers often come together to form agencies that operate recycling programs on their behalf—whether through curbside collection or recycling depots.
The decision notes a number of printing services listed on UPS’s website, from brochures and business cards to banners, invitations, menus and office supplies.
“We offer a wide range of packaging supplies and materials, including envelopes, boxes, bubble cushioning, packaging peanuts and tape,” says the UPS website’s FAQ tab.
David Durker, chief executive officer of UPS, disputed the company’s designation as a producer. In submissions, Durker said the company’s more than 360 Canadian franchisees do not meet B.C.’s definition of a producer.
By stating the company had contravened the province’s recycling regulation, UPS argued Mills had made a pre-emptive determination. Mills did so, argued UPS, without statutory authority and without giving the company a meaningful opportunity to be heard.
UPS called for the director to be recused from the decision-making process over her alleged bias.
In her response, the director responded to the allegations saying an early statement that she had been “satisfied” a contravention had occurred was based on the information provided to her at the time. Mills said she had been merely “considering the imposition of an administrative penalty” and that her early assessment was “preliminary.”
As the process progressed, UPS was given a chance to have its side of the story heard, the decision states.
“I am satisfied that there is no valid basis for my recusal, as there has been no breach of procedural fairness, nor any reasonable apprehension of bias,” Mills wrote.
In assessing the evidence, Mills confirmed that UPS’s contraventions should be considered as “major.”
Allowing some producers to avoid their obligations under the extended producer responsibility program “creates an uneven playing field,” she wrote.
That situation, the director said, leads compliant producers to pay for the recycling of non-compliant companies.
UPS has 30 days to appeal the decision.
The decision comes less than two weeks after KMS Tools and Equipment Ltd., a tool distributor with nine retail locations in B.C. and five in Alberta, had a $28,500 penalty upheld for failing to follow recycling regulations between 2022 and 2024.
The company claimed it was being “unfairly targeted.” It claimed none of its competitors were being penalized and 99.75 per cent of B.C. businesses are not on the producer list.
The decision against the KMS Tools states that the province repeatedly warned that the company was out of compliance but did not “make any attempt to work with RecycleBC, for example, to take the actions necessary to comply with the regulation.”
