Across Canada, many provinces have already or are planning on transitioning the responsibility of the blue box programs from municipalities to producers through a policy approach called Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) or Individual Producer Responsibility (IPR) (depending on which province you are in).
EPR/IPR shifts the responsibility of the post-consumer stage of a product's lifecycle to the producers and away from municipalities and general taxpayers. For blue box programs, municipalities will no longer be responsible for collecting, processing, and/or marketing of recyclables - this will be passed on to the producers.
In 2019 Dillon was retained to update the City of Guelph's Solid Waste Management Master Plan. This updated Plan will guide the City in their waste management goals and objectives for the next 20 years. As part of this project, Dillon developed an EPR/IPR Transition Tool based on the principles of change management. The Tool looks at the various aspects of the solid waste management system in terms of what will be impacted and what the potential ripple effect will be for system components such as People (customers, City staff), Business Processes and Facilities/Equipment, when the City transitions to EPR.
One of the goals was to accumulate data in a manner that producers will need and understand. Several scenarios were developed and their potential impacts assessed which included scenarios that looked at if the City would continue to provide blue box services to non-residential properties (e.g., businesses) that are not covered in Ontario's Blue Box Regulation. A schedule was developed to support a customized EPR/IPR Transition Tool, including the identification of risks and mitigation strategies.
Since this initial project, Dillon has customized the tool for additional municipalities including the Cities of Barrie, Hamilton, and Owen Sound.