The approved Municipal Hazardous or Special Waste (MHSW) Wind Up Plan and subsequent amendments included provisions for Stewardship Ontario to disburse MHSW Program surplus funds to stewards and Industry Stewardship Organizations (ISOs) to facilitate fee reductions during the remainder of the program. The approved Plan also provided for the disbursement of residual funds to stewards and ISOs following the resolution of Program financial obligations.
Steward cheques and notices related to these payments have been issued and stewards may review their account details in the WeRecycle Portal.
This chart provides a summary of both total surplus funds disbursed by Stewardship Ontario related to the fee reduction process and residual funds disbursed under the approved MHSW Wind Up Plan in various MHSW categories.
Surplus fund fee reductions disbursed by Stewardship Ontario throughout the MHSW Wind Up Plan, including retro-active fee reductions issued June 17, 2022, total $44.8 million. Residual funds issued to stewards and ISOs (for disbursement to their members) total $2.9 million. Total surplus and residual funds disbursed to stewards and ISOs during the MHSW Wind Up process were $47.7 million.
Stewardship Ontario began implementing fee reductions in January 2020 with respect to invoices issued in relation to the single-use battery material category. In July 2020, in accordance with the ISO Surplus Fund Transfer Addendum, Stewardship Ontario disbursed surplus funds to ISOs to facilitate the implementation of fee reductions for their members.
In June 2021, the Resource Productivity and Recovery Authority approved Stewardship Ontario’s program extension addendum to September 30, 2021. Consequently, Q3 invoices previously scheduled to be issued on September 30, 2021, were issued on July 30, 2021. Final MHSW Program invoices, as per the Approved MHSW Program Extension Addendum, were issued to stewards on December 30, 2021.
Stewardship Ontario introduced fee reductions for the antifreeze, fertilizer, paints & coatings and solvent categories in July 2021. Fee reductions also continued in the pressurized container, oil container and oil filter categories. The timing of fee reduction disbursements is included in the summary fee reduction and residual fund disbursement chart.