Have you ever noticed how much packaging surrounds the products we buy? Tiny items delivered in oversized boxes stuffed with Styrofoam or bubble wrap, slices of cheese or bread individually wrapped in plastic envelopes, fruit or vegetables bundled on plastic trays covered in plastic wrap, blister packs for tiny items, embedded on large cardboard shelf hangers, (that are virtually impossible to open), or electronics wrapped in foam, inside a box which is then wrapped in another box.
All this may be about to change in Ontario. This past Thursday, January 1st, responsibility for residential recycling in the province shifted away from municipal governments. The costs of collecting and disposing of recycled material are now borne by retailers and packaging producers under a policy approach called Extended Producer Responsibility, (EPR).
Circular Materials is the not-for-profit organization supporting the EPR program in Ontario and for ensuring packaging suppliers meet their obligations under the new framework. Under this new system, producers are now financially and operationally responsible for managing the waste associated with their products and packaging.
From an environmental perspective this promises to be a major step forward. Up to this point, manufacturers only cared about things like protecting a product during transport, making it more attractive, or making it more difficult to shoplift. Now the cost of disposing of all that excess packaging is borne by the companies that manufacture or retail the product. They are therefore incentivized to reduce those costs by reducing the amount of packaging, and or making packaging easier to recycle through standardization and reduced toxicity of packaging materials. It also means that more materials will be recycled and the same list of materials will be recycled across the Province. These actions reduce costs, and make the system more efficient. They have the extra benefit of lowering the load that these materials have historically imposed on the environment.
Residents of Peel can now put more products in their blue bin. The list includes coated paper products, (coffee cups, ice cream tubs), empty deodorant containers, plastic bottle caps, toothpaste tubes, Styrofoam, bubble wrap, and frozen juice containers. Other products that were accepted in the Peel blue bin before, (like black plastic containers), are now accepted anywhere in the province. No more guesswork about what’s acceptable when visiting friends in a different municipality.
Another advantage of this new system is that it encourages a market for recycled products. Previously low demand meant that much of the collected recycled products was shipped to countries in the global south where it was burned or ended up in landfill. Now, new regulations under the Resource Recovery and Circular Economy Act 2016 stipulate that a certain percentage of a specified material category must be both recovered and reused. This percentage increases over time from 2026-2030. For example, in 2026, 75% of the beverage containers sold in Ontario, (by weight), must be recovered and reused. That increases to 80% by 2030.
The highest recovery rate will be for cardboard and paper, (85%), and the lowest is for flexible plastic, (25%). A variety of factors contribute to the difference in recovery rates. Cardboard and newsprint is less contaminated, making it easier to recover and reuse than mixed plastics or composite materials. Market demand, regulatory and program structure will also affect recovery rates.
Under the new program, Community Recycling Centres will remain open and will continue collecting electronic waste, hazardous waste and bulk handling of recycled materials. Stewardship Ontario, the organization that historically managed Ontario’s blue bin program, ceased operations at the end of 2025 and transferred all responsibility to Circular Materials.
It will be interesting to see the effect that this new program will have on waste reduction and diversion rates over the coming years. Our hope is that Circular Materials will be diligent, accurate, and transparent in their management and monitoring of program results. We also want the Ontario government to expand the program to make it easier to recycle other materials like tires, textiles, wood and construction material as well as mandate higher recovery rates on plastics, and support Canada’s ban on single-use plastics. Standardized right to repair legislation combined with a consumer green bin incentive would help move the province from laggard to leader in waste management!
Download the free app to your Apple or Android phone for a complete list of what can and cannot be recycled.
