A brief history of waste diversion in Ontario

These questions were the subject of an ongoing debate in Ontario for many years that culminated in the creation of the Waste Diversion Act and established how we recycle today. [...] The number of refillables on the market continued to decrease as the number of non-refillable containers increased. [...] In March 1989, MOE announced new diversion targets of at least 25% of Ontario’s solid waste from disposal facilities by 1992, and at least 50% by the year 2000.16 Two years later, following the election of a New Democratic Party (NDP) government in 1990, the Minister of the Environment launched the Waste Reduction Action Plan (WRAP) in February 1991. [...] WRAP included a number of initiatives to promote waste diversion and the 3Rs: regulatory measures; financial and technical support; public education; and the development of markets for recyclable materials.17 MOE introduced new regulations in 1994: the 3Rs (Reduction, Reuse and Recycling) Regulations under the Environmental Protection Act were intended to be an integral means of achieving the obje [...] The report did observe that changing to a deposit-refund system would have a negative impact on the existing blue box system due to the reduced tonnage in the blue box and the economies of scale.35 By 1999, the Blue Box system was close to financial collapse.