Welcome to Stewardship Ontario, Ontario's First Industry Funding Organization

Welcome to Stewardship Ontario's Blue Box Program

Ontario's Waste Diversion Act requires all companies that introduce packaging and printed material into Ontario’s consumer marketplace ("Stewards") to share in paying 50% of the funding of Ontario's municipal Blue Box waste diversion programs.

Since 2004, many resident in Ontario companies/organizations that are Brand Owners or First Importers, and whose products' packaging and/or printed material end up in Ontario residential Blue Boxes or in the municipal residential waste system have been required to register with Stewardship Ontario. Many of these companies are further obligated to file annual Stewards' Reports and pay fees to discharge their legal obligations.

New Companies – Register with Stewardship Ontario
If your company/organization has never registered with Stewardship Ontario click on "New Companies" to determine if it is obligated and for further information about how to register your company with Stewardship Ontario. If your company has registered in a previous year (between 2004 and present), see Returning Stewards below, however, if you are new to this process, it is recommended you read the guidebooks.

Obligated stewards or companies wanting
to register may do so by clicking here.

Returning Stewards – Program Updates
If your company has registered with Stewardship Ontario as an obligated steward at any time since 2004 and:

is up to date in filing required Steward’s Reports, click on "Returning Stewards" to find out what steps you need to take to remain compliant in the 2009 obligation year;
needs to file one or more Steward’s Reports for previous program years, click on "New Companies" and work through the process, beginning at Step 4, "Collect Your Data."

If your company has registered with Stewardship Ontario in the past, and was not obligated to file reports and/or pay fees for 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007 and/or 2008 obligation years, but is likely to be required to file a Steward’s Report for 2009, please contact Stewardship Ontario (see contact information below) to initiate this process.

Find out if your company is registered
To verify if your company is registered or if you have any other questions, please call Customer Service Group.

Penalties and Interest
Companies obligated under the Waste Diversion Act, 2002 that fail to pay fees as set out in the Reporting and Payment Schedule will be subject to penalties and interest charges. Reporting and Payment Deadlines for the 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008 obligation years are 93 days from each steward’s date of notification for each obligation year. See the Rules to determine when Payment of fees was required for each obligation year. The reporting and payment schedule for the 2009 obligation year is shown in Appendix C of the 2009 Rules (January 1 to December 31, 2009).

The Investigations and Enforcement Branch of the MOE has charged companies for failing to comply with the WDA.

For more information:

Customer Service Group
Phone: 1-888-288-3360
Email: customerservice@stewardshipontario.ca

For details about these requirements, see the Ontario Ministry of Environment’s website at http://www.ene.gov.on.ca/envision/land/WDA/bluebox/bluebox.htm.