FAQ

The Ontario Waste Diversion Act, 2002 (WDA) requires companies who are designated as "stewards" of residential "Designated Blue Box Waste" (DBBW) to share in funding 50% of the net cost of Ontario's municipal Blue Box programs. Considering the questions below, and reviewing a flowchart diagram of the process, will help you determine if your company is likely to be classified as a steward. 

• Is your company resident in Ontario? For more information about residency in Ontario and how this concept is applied, please refer to the 2012 Rules, Appendix B - available here.
• Are you/is your company a brand owner, first importer, or franchisor of one or more consumer products and /or printed materials sold or distributed in Ontario?
• If you answered yes to question 2, do your organization's products or printed material generate "Designated Blue Box Waste" (DBBW)? DBBW is defined as packaging and/or printed material that consists of one or a combination of glass, metal, paper, plastic, or textiles and that is potentially disposed of in the Ontario municipal residential waste system.
• Was your company's gross Ontario revenue greater than $2 million in any of the obligation years (starting with 2002)? Gross Ontario revenue includes the combined gross revenues from the sale of all products and services in Ontario by your company and all of its affiliates. If your company is a franchise, gross Ontario revenue refers to the combined sales from all of your franchisees' products and services.

If you answered yes to each of the questions above, your company is obligated to file a steward's report with Stewardship Ontario through our WeRecycle online reporting system. If you answered no to any question, you are not obligated under the Waste Diversion Act. However, we would like to encourage you to take a moment and register on the WeRecycle portal to declare your non-obligation status, so that we have your information on file.

 For a detailed list of DBBW, review the material categories table.

Stewardship Ontario applies a sales-based and a tonnage-based exemption threshold (also known as the "de minimis") to determine if a steward is required to register with us and to pay fees for the Blue Box program. If your company's gross Ontario revenue (described in Question 1) is less than $2 million in any applicable "data" year, then you are exempt from filing a steward's report for that year. If your company reported less than 15 tonnes of DBBW packaging and printed material, then you are exempt from paying fees for that obligation period, but must still file a steward's report. 

Any company may register with Stewardship Ontario, but only obligated brand owners, first importers and franchisors resident in Ontario are required by law to do so. Upon registration, you will receove a steward number, login ID and password to enable you to file a steward's report online. For details on the registration process, please read "New Stewards" and the reporting Guidebooks. 

 Stewards are required to calculate the actual tonnage (in number of kilograms) of each material type of Designated Blue Box Waste (DBBW) for which they are obligated. Each DBBW material is associated with an approved fee for that obligation year. WeRecycle, our steward reporting system, automatically calculates how much you are required to pay based on the amount of each DBBW material you used in packaging or printed material during the"data" year. Payment deadlines are dependent on each steward’s date of notification for each obligation year. Please see Fees and Payments for these key dates.

Stewards are required to report actual or measured quantities of DBBW in kilograms that accompany products for which they are the brand owner and/or first importer, and printed materials that were sold and distributed to Ontario and managed in the province’s municipal residential waste system. DBBW materials that are not managed in the residential waste system (i.e., that are managed by private waste- management firms at business establishments) need not be included in the steward’s report.

When actual data is not available, stewards may be able to use one of several reporting calculators authorized for use by Stewardship Ontario. The calculators have been designed for stewards who are obligated for a broad range of products in a specified sector, and not for those who sell a focused or limited variety of goods in a particular “calculator” sector. To use any of these tools, you must fill out a calculator application form and receive approval from Stewardship Ontario. The calculators are made available only to authorized stewards through the steward reporting system and Excel spreadsheets provided at the time of approval. Stewards who are not approved to use calculators are obligated to calculate and file their steward's report based on actual or measured tonnage.

There is no single answer to this. It depends on how your company is structured and where the information is stored. As a general rule, it is best if the head office can coordinate all division/subsidiary reports on behalf of the entire organization by registering as the primary steward contact. The steward reporting system is flexible enough to handle most organizational needs. Additional contacts (secondary contacts) from unique divisions and subsidiaries may be given passwords by the primary contact (from head office) to access the head office's account and to file packaging and printed material obligations as secondary contacts within that account.

Ultimately, responsibility for the organization's aggregate obligations resides with the head office or holding company.

If the company as a whole (including all divisions, subsidiaries and brands) is above the de minimis thresholds, then the company must report for all of their divisions and/or subsidiaries under one steward number and under one report. The steward reporting system will allow stewards to break out these divisions for internal cost allocation purposes.

 Any printed material that accompanies your product, and that is or may be managed through Ontario's residential municipal waste stream, must be included in your steward's report. Please see the material category table for definitions and examples.

 Stewards will never need to collect and use their 2005 data in conjunction with filing a steward's report under this program. This is due to a program modification for the 2007 which is meant to facilitate data collection for stewards and to harmonize data requirements with Quebec's Compensation Regime. Stewards are required to file steward's reports for the 2005 obligation year (which was based on your company's 2003 data) and pay associated fees.

 If your primary contact is no longer with the company, the change must be requested in writing. Please provide authorization in the form of an werecyclestewardshipontario [dot] ca (e-mail) with a completed primary contact change form signed by a senior officer. If the current primary contact is still with the company then the primary contact can make the change in the WeRecycle website.

• Once Stewardship Ontario receives your request, we will process your primary contact change within two to three business days. This timeframe will not apply to requests for changes received within five days of the reporting deadline.
• We will notify the new primary contact of their login ID and password once the changes are complete.

Please note: Verbal requests will not be accepted.

 Primary contacts can make changes to the company address through the WeRecycle reporting site. After you login, click on the “Company” tab, make the change(s) and click on “Save Contacts.”

In the case of a sale, merger, purchase, or any other transaction whose sole impact is a legal name change, a steward may request a name change. Stewardship Ontario will require one the following legal documents before changing the company name.

• Article of Amendment
• Article of Incorporation (where applicable)
• Business Registration

Where none of the above documents are available, Stewardship Ontario will accept a letter from the steward’s solicitor.

werecyclestewardshipontario [dot] ca (E-mail) your request for a change of company name, attach the appropriate documents, and include your current company name along with the name change. 

 As with address changes, primary contacts can make a change to the billing contact by logging in to WeRecycle , clicking on the “Contact” tab, making the changes and clicking on “Save Contacts.” You will need to ensure your billing contact has the login ID and password.

To generate a new temporary password by e-mail, go to WeRecycle, click on “Get Support” and follow the instructions for a “Password Reset”. Your User ID will not change. If you receive a message that states “Authentication Failed”, the information you have provided does not match what we have on file.

Please contact us at 1-888-288-3360 to remedy the situation. 

Stewardship Ontario is unable to grant stewards extensions to their filing deadlines. The Rules state that all stewards have 93 days from their notification date to file any and all outstanding steward’s reports. Stewardship Ontario may charge penalties and interest to stewards who pay fees later than 93 days from their notification date. 

A company that receives a notification letter, but fails to file a steward’s report and make appropriate payment within 93 days (as defined by the Rules) is “non-compliant”. Non-compliant stewards may be subject to enforcement actions prescribed under Sections 36-41 of the Waste Diversion Act. Stewards who fail to pay fees by the timelines defined in the Rules can be assessed one-time penalties of 10% on fees owing and interest charges of prime plus 3% daily on balances owing. 

 In certain circumstances, Stewardship Ontario may allow a steward to re-file a steward’s report. For example, “double reporting”, which can occur if two companies (such as a brand owner and first importer) report the same packaging, may be considered grounds for re-filing. Please see the administrative procedures for information on the three approved conditions for re-submitting reports.