Stewardship Ontario’s simplified fee-setting proposal for the Blue Box Program recently submitted to the Resource Productivity & Recovery Authority (RPRA) following stakeholder consultations has been approved with conditions.
Following the approval, and once Stewardship Ontario satisfies the specified conditions, most stewards will not be required to submit detailed material reports to Stewardship Ontario. This change may be effective beginning in 2022 and will be in place for the remaining years of the program, which ceases operations in 2025. Annual fees will be calculated from each steward’s budget share, with the percentage based on individual steward fees for invoice years 2021 and 2022 (2019 and 2020 sales data years).
The Addendum to the Blue Box Program Transition Plan and RPRA’s approval letter with conditions are available on the Stewardship Ontario website.
Conditions
RPRA approved the proposed Revised Fee Setting Methodology Addendum to the Blue Box Program Transition Plan with the following conditions:
- Before implementing the simplified fee-setting methodology, Stewardship Ontario will provide to RPRA a comprehensive plan for determining the recovery rate of the Blue Box Program (including a methodology for calculating generated tonnes) through to the transition in 2025.
- Stewardship Ontario will continue to conduct bale composition studies until a satisfactory alternative is presented to RPRA.
Next Steps and Consultation
Stewardship Ontario will keep stakeholders informed on its progress to satisfy the conditions and will also be seeking feedback on draft program Rules and a new Policy that will guide implementation of simplified fee setting.
Further details about the consultation process will be provided in the next few days.