ONTARIO: Ministry Mulls Packaging Fees

April 11, 2003 ; Copyright 2003 Raymond Communications, Inc. from the April 2003 SRLU.

Ontario’s Ministry of the Environment is still considering what will happen to Stewardship Ontario’s Blue Box plan, which could cost industry about $60 million CDN by 2005.

Sources say the Ministry will take the maximum amount of time to review t he plan, so there may not be approvals until June. However if approved as is, manufacturers selling more than $2 million (CDN) wholesale in Ontario will be obligated to pay fees – 50% of Blue Box costs – sometime later this year. (See SRLU Jan, Feb and March for details.)

Observers are skeptical SO can reach 5,000 - 8,000 product makers in such a short time. Many companies had filed comments with the Ministry asking to have the program postponed until 2004 to allow time for preparation.

Companies that do not have real packaging data available this year can use the “quick calculator” on the SO web site.

However, this could be costly to some companies. Consultant Victor Bell of Environmental Packaging International, tells SRLU he compared the quick calculator to real data for one cosmetics firm, and found the real data saved the company 75%. He commented that the cosmetics industry can expect to pay about $950 per $1 million in sales for its packaging fees.

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