Minister's Speech

Remarks prepared for:

The Honourable John Gerretsen
Minister of the Environment

“Take Back the Light” Event with RCO
Queen’s Park Media Studio
June 18, 2008

(Check against delivery)

Good afternoon, everyone.

I’m glad to be here today along with my friend and colleague David Caplan, the Minister of Public Infrastructure Renewal. 

I want to thank Jo-anne St. Godard from the Recycling Council of Ontario for her work in setting up this project.

Last year marked the beginning of a pilot program with the Toronto District School Board to collect and properly recycle fluorescent lamps from schools around the Toronto area through the help of program partners; the Recycling Council of Ontario, Osram-Sylvania, Wolf Electric and Aevitis.

This pilot program has been a great success.  It has diverted close to 13,000 lamps from landfills, and 98 per cent of each lamp recovered is recycled back into useful glass, aluminum and brass products. 

This is good news for our environmental future.

It’s the kind of program we need in Ontario; one that sees different groups from both the public and private sectors working together to create a healthier future — one that considers the benefits of addressing end-of-life solutions for common products.

This pilot program has also taught us how this type of recycling program can be put in place across Ontario. 

Today, I am happy to announce our government is leading the way by partnering with RCO in the expansion of this fluorescent lamp recycling program.

This program is the first of its kind in North America.  And we want to be on board.

Government has a key role to play by cleaning up our own house.  It’s not enough to just talk the talk we need to walk the talk. 

In my own ministry, we are dedicated to Project Green, with the goal of being the greenest government ministry.

From using renewable energy … to enhanced recycling efforts … to video-conferencing … to purchasing more hybrid vehicles for our fleet … we are leading by example.

Take Back the Light is the logical next step.

I’m pleased that our Ministry of the Environment facilities are already on board beginning with our office building at 135 St. Clair Avenue West. 

We already have a number of buildings participating and eventually all Ontario government buildings will be signed on to the program.

We have stopped sending fluorescent lamps to landfill. 

These lamps contain mercury — not a problem when they are intact, but if released into our environment, mercury can be harmful to our land and water and to human health. 

The goal of the program is to recycle 10 million lamps by 2012.  With the support of business and institutions across Ontario, I know we can do it.

Many Ontarians have already made the switch from regular light bulbs to compact fluorescent bulbs. 

That makes this kind of program even more important.

We all need to do our part in creating a greener Ontario and this project highlights environmental actions we can all take, such as conserving energy, reducing the amount of waste we produce, reusing and recycling.

I am proud that my ministry has supported both the pilot project and the roll-out of this important program.

I want to encourage all Ontario business and institutions to sign on to the Take Back the Light program and step up to the challenge.

Working together, we can all help make Ontario cleaner and healthier and create a brighter future for us all.

Thank you.

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