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Notes for remarks

by

The Honourable Laurel Broten
Minister of the Environment

“Waste Diversion in Ontario: Learning from Our Past to Find Solutions for the Future”

Speakers' Forum 2006
Recycling Council of Ontario
"MAKING WASTE HISTORY - How to Solve Ontario's Waste Puzzle"

Boulevard Club
Toronto, ON
Thursday, May 11, 2006

(Check against delivery)

Thank you, Chris. And thanks everyone. It’s great to be here today.

I’ve just returned from a really productive few days in Washington D.C. It’s always energizing to travel. And returning home puts everything in perspective. Joining you here today, I realize that whether the issue is transboundary air — the focus of my meetings in the U.S. capital this week — or waste management in Ontario, what is critically important is passion.

Yes, we have experts. Yes, we have research. Yes, we have experience and sound science behind us. But it’s passion that knits it all together in the end. To solve our smog problems here in Ontario, we’ll need the kind of commitment and passion that has made us the gold standard when it comes to recycling in this province. And to solve the larger puzzle of long-term waste management, we’ll need to pull out all the stops.

Given the agenda of the Speakers’ Forum, and the participants gathered here today, I have no doubt we’ve got what it takes.

Your host, Recycling Council of Ontario, is asking each of you to tackle key policy issues today. These are the fundamental questions that need to be answered for us to collectively make headway on this issue.

Here they are:

• What are the roles of municipalities when it comes to diversion and how can we maximize efficiencies?
• What are the roles of stewards in the development of new stewardship programs?
• Who are the leading champions of waste diversion in Ontario?
• How can new tools like financial incentives be developed to help enhance waste diversion across Ontario communities?

The agenda today is really about learning from past experiences and moving forward with that knowledge to solve this puzzle.

We need to deal effectively with the waste produced by our growing population, to move beyond unsustainable practices like shipping waste to Michigan and to develop made-in-Ontario solutions that we can sustain for decades to come.

Nous devons gérer plus efficacement les déchets que produit la population grandissante de la province… nous devons faire en sorte d’éliminer les pratiques non durables comme celle qui consiste à envoyer des déchets au Michigan ... et nous devons trouver des solutions ontariennes qui fonctionneront pendant des décennies.

The stakes are high. Our continued prosperity and quality of life depend on our success in achieving our goals for waste diversion in Ontario.

I would like to take a few minutes to talk about waste diversion in Ontario — how what we’ve learned can translate into great solutions for the future.

I believe we have made significant progress together. Our past successes have laid a strong foundation for us to build on for a cleaner, healthier environment and the kind of future we all want.

Just look at our history and where we’ve been. Ontario was the birthplace of what has become an internationally-recognized symbol of diversion and collective effort. I’m speaking, of course, about the Blue Box.

The Blue Box is now a household word — or, rather, a household “activity” — but most residents don’t understand the work that went into keeping it alive as the mainstay of waste diversion in Ontario.

The Blue Box has shown us that, to be truly beneficial, a program must be sustainable.

The Blue Box is the best example of what can be accomplished under the model for stewardship programs set out in the Waste Diversion Act. The Waste Diversion Ontario Blue Box Program Plan signed by my predecessor in December 2003 was a breakthrough for Ontario.

Thanks to this plan, we have been able to put into play the principle of extended producer responsibility with a funding formula that obligates industry to pay its fair share for managing the wastes it produces. Industry stewards must pay fees covering 50 per cent of the net cost of operating municipal programs, with municipalities responsible for the remaining 50 per cent.

For 2006, municipalities will receive an estimated 55.5 million dollars from industry stewards.

The Blue Box is one of our province’s greatest accomplishments and to increase diversion in Ontario, we need similar breakthroughs in sustainability for other diversion programs.

What count most are results and we’re certainly getting them from the Blue Box.

According to the latest numbers from Waste Diversion Ontario, overall blue box recovery in Ontario increased by six per cent to more than 820,000 tonnes in 2004.

At the same time as we’re seeing these increases, we’re also seeing advances in municipalities across Ontario as new initiatives are introduced, including one that is very visible in this city — the green bin.

Where do we go from here?

Our future is one we must work hard on building together. It’s an Ontario with dramatically higher waste diversion rates — an Ontario where government sets out the tools that municipalities and industry can use to help drive diversion rates in their communities. It’s an Ontario where municipalities and industry stewards deliver effective programs. And it’s an Ontario where people in communities everywhere are full participants.

There’s an expression that goes “not being able to do everything is no excuse for not doing everything you can.” In our context this means that no one organization or individual can do it all. We all have a role to play.

I’m optimistic about our prospects because Ontario has the people and the ideas.

I outlined some of our directions last month at a meeting of Waste Diversion Ontario. I used that occasion to outline two new initiatives that are putting us forward on the path to sustainability.

First, I told WDO that I will be requesting a new program for household hazardous and special wastes.

Many municipalities have been running household hazardous and special waste programs for years, so we’re off to a good start because some of the infrastructure is already in place. The new program is needed, though, because it will help meet the demand for a co-ordinated, province-wide approach.

I am looking for a program that includes products like paint, household cleaners, fluorescent tubes and batteries.

I’m also going to ask WDO to include used oil containers and filters in the household hazardous and special waste program.

The second program I will be asking WDO for involves electronics.

We need to deal with computers, printers and cell phones. These devices are becoming increasingly prominent in our lives, and — correspondingly — they are a growing waste problem.

We have to come to grips with this issue as quickly as possible. The latest innovations can render equipment obsolete in very short order.

In a world where technologies are changing this rapidly, we can’t let our ability to manage electronic wastes lag behind product life-cycles.

We will complement diversion initiatives by providing our municipal and industry partners with new and better tools to divert more waste from disposal.

Interesting possibilities are emerging on many fronts. We must be ready to embrace them.

By taking more types of material out of the waste stream, we are creating more opportunities for recycling and a greater need for recycling facilities.

Of course, there will always be the need to deal with residual wastes that we have not been able to capture through reduction, reuse or recycling. We need to go beyond the often-outdated technologies being used today to take advantage of the opportunities presented by new, cleaner 21st century technologies.

And to minimize the creation of waste in the first place, I intend to push for a review of the national packaging protocol.

I want to conclude with some thoughts on the road we’re taking with environmental assessment in Ontario.

Our government is committed to an improved environmental assessment process that helps meet Ontario’s waste management needs.

We all know about the difficulties of the EA process. It takes too long to approve landfill sites and other projects designed to help us meet our waste management requirements.

EA delays mean more red tape but not necessarily better environmental protection.

We need to be able to say ‘Yes’ faster to worthy projects, and ‘No’ equally fast to the projects that are not environmentally responsible or feasible.

I know that I can count on the people here to provide us with valuable input when it comes time to talk about these plans. RCO and our other partners here have been instrumental in Ontario’s progress to date — we look forward to your continued support and collaboration as we build on the successes of the past to create an even brighter future for waste diversion in Ontario.

We’ve come a long way.

By continuing to work together, I know we will reach our shared goal for a cleaner, healthier Ontario … for our children and their children.

Let’s continue to move forward together. Let’s do all we can to make a real, positive and lasting difference in the lives of Ontarians.

Thank you.

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