Blue Box Recycling Program Enhancement & Best Practices Assessment Project

In September, 2006, Stewardship Ontario launched the Blue Box Recycling Program Enhancement & Best Practices Assessment Project under the E&E Fund to identify Best Practice (BP) activities for Ontario’s municipal Blue Box recycling programs and to determine the cost of the system if it were operating at best practice for the purpose of setting stewards’ fees. Valued at up to $2.5 million, this undertaking focused on identifying program-specific opportunities and implementation strategies to move Ontario municipal recycling programs toward best practices. A consortium lead by KPMG with R.W. Beck and Entec Consulting was retained in August 2006 to carry out this work.
The Municipal-Industry Program Committee (MIPC) has recently received the final, two-volume project report

• Volume 1 describes the project methodology, defines ‘best practices’ (for the purposes of the project) and outlines fundamental, conditional and other best practices for municipal Blue Box recycling programs
• Volume 2 describes KPMG’s model for projecting the cost of the Ontario municipal Blue Box system if it were operating at “best practice” *

Report highlights – coming soon!
An overview of the draft report was presented by KPMG to the Ontario Recycler’s workshop on May 17.

• Project Presentation at Ontario Recycler Workshop, May 17 – Printable PDF format (4.6 MB)
• Project Presentation at Ontario Recycler Workshop, May 17 – PPS Presentation format (5.5 MB)

The analysis, conclusions and recommendations within the report are those of KPMG and its team.  MIPC is now reviewing the report and considering how the information provided will be used to establish the best practice cost for setting steward’s fees for 2008 and subsequent years of the Blue Box Program and how the municipal Blue Box system can be improved with on-going implementation of best practices. 
Meanwhile the project has already begun to have an impact.  Its collaborative approach has raised awareness throughout the province of the objectives and of the barriers and opportunities for improving Ontario’s recycling system.  Subsequent projects have already been initiated which are designed to improve municipal recycling programs building on information in the report.
* Stewardship Ontario considers the KPMG cost model to be a useful contribution to projecting the cost of a sustainable recycling system operating at best practices.  The elements of the model and the assumptions within the model will continue to be evaluated.
For more information about the project, its background, the project team and other details click on: Background and Details.