Why Scrapping Eco Fees is a Bad Idea

Recently Tim Hudak and the Progressive Conservatives announced their platform which includes scrapping the Eco Fees program. This is a deliberate and cynical attempt to take advantage of the fact that most Ontarians do not understand the fees nor, ironically, do they understand the consequences on their wallets if the fees are cancelled.

How many times have we seen coffee cups littering the roadside and wished that the company selling the coffee was responsible for their disposal. We feel that if the company had to pay for the cleanup they would come up with a better way to make sure the cups did not end up blowing around in ditches.  That is the premise behind Eco Fees - to force the manufacturers and sellers of a wide variety of electronics and other products containing hazardous materials (i.e. chemicals) to be responsible for recycling them. That keeps these chemicals out of our landfill sites and from polluting our environment. That's a great idea.

It is also a great way to force manufacturers to reduce the amount of hazardous materials in their products. Manufacturers pay fees for recycling based on weight, therefore less hazardous materials, less fees.

In reality, we have already experienced this premise. Have you noticed that plastic water bottles seem flimsier than when they were first introduced? The manufacturers and sellers of bottled water pay fees for their recycling based on weight - the lighter the bottle, the less they pay.

The organization that oversees the recycling of plastic bottles is the same one that is responsible for Eco Fees. Stewardship Ontario is a "private, not-for-profit organization that develops, funds and operates Ontario’s highly successful recycling programs for printed paper and packaging (Blue Box) and household hazardous and special waste."  Ironically, Stewardship Ontario was created by the Mike Harris government as part of the 2002 Waste Diversion Act. The Act mandates the manufacturers of a number of products to pay fees to an Industry Funded Organization (i.e.Stewardship Ontario) to cover the cost of recycling and disposal of the products.

Unfortunately when Eco Fees were introduced by the Liberal government, the legislation did not include provisions to prohibit the manufacturers/sellers from passing these fees on to the people purchasing their goods. That is exactly what happened and consumers were very upset. Fair enough.

(By the way, having consumers pay these fee is the very definition of  user fees. It is not a tax as asserted by Mr Hudak. In addition, as set out in the 2002  legislation enacted when Mr Hudak was a part of Cabinet, the fees collected go to Stewardship Ontario and not the government. Thus the assertion that the Liberal government is collecting all this money is a disingenuous attempt to buy votes.)

The Liberals should have amended the legislation to halt the ability to pass fees onto consumers. But Mr Hudak's simplistic plan is even worse. Cancelling the program will allow manufacturers/sellers to abandon paying the fees and reducing the amounts of hazardous materials in their products. Instead  the Conservatives will either allow these chemicals to end up in landfills, which given the growing evidence of links between chemicals in the environment and cancer rates is a bad idea, or more likely they will download the responsibility of recycling/disposal of hazardous materials to municipalities. That means ALL citizens in Ontario will pay for this recycling/disposal, whether we use the products or not.

That is not fair. It is particularly unfair to seniors, the working poor and anybody who chooses not purchase many electronics or does not toss them out just because something newer has come along.

If we are going to reduce the threat of dangerous chemicals to our health, our children's health and our environment, we need all parties in Ontario to maintain Eco Fees and amend the existing legislation to disallow manufacturers and sellers to pass along the fees for recycling hazardous materials to their customers.