TORONTO – The controversy generated by Ontario’s recent "eco-fee" fiasco risks jeopardizing the success of hazardous waste management, warns the province’s environmental watchdog.
In a special report issued Tuesday morning, Environmental Commissioner Gord Miller said the decision by some retailers to "invent" the concept of eco fees, and the ensuing public confusion, could put the future of the province’s Municipal Hazardous or Special Waste plan at risk.
"While not perfect, the hazardous waste program is definitely a step in the right direction," Miller said. "It will keep more hazardous materials out of our environment and will take the cost of managing these wastes off the taxpayer and put it where it belongs: on the manufacturers of the hazardous waste products."
The eco fee took consumers and businesses by surprise when it came into effect on July 1, along with the harmonized sales tax.
The fees were part of Stewardship Ontario’s Municipal Hazardous or Special Waste program, which was created in 2008 to divert products harmful to the environment, such as paints, solvents and batteries, from landfills and waterways.
When the program was expanded three weeks ago, thousands of household materials, such as fire extinguishers, sunblock and car polish, suddenly came with fees of anywhere between a few cents and several dollars.
Under the expanded program, Stewardship Ontario imposed fees on businesses that manufacture or sell the potentially harmful products to offset the costs of recycling. But businesses were then free to pass the charges on to consumers by incorporating the fees into prices or listing them separately on receipts.
Miller said retailers "created" eco fees in an attempt to show consumers the extra charges. But he said such fees were never a part of the province’s Municipal Hazardous or Special Waste plan.
Environment Minister John Gerretsen announced last week that the province was scrapping eco fees for three months while the program is reviewed. But taxpayers will still be on the hook for the program costs, as the government is kicking in $5 million to make up for the fees no longer charged at cash registers while retooling takes place.
Miller said a critical problem with the current program is that manufacturers have no incentive to make their products greener because they are charged the same steward fee regardless of the environmentally friendliness of their products.
"Greener products should have lower fees. This would encourage competition between companies, which should result in less toxic and more recyclable products, and keep the program costs in check," Miller said.
Another problem with the current program, he said, is that manufacturers are charged steward fees when their products are released into the marketplace. Such a measure only pays for the management of wastes collected and does not prevent all hazardous wastes from ending up in landfills.
In fact, Stewardship Ontario aims to collect only 42 per cent of available hazardous waste in the program’s first year, meaning taxpayers will still be footing the bill for managing more than half of Ontario’s hazardous waste, he said.
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