What's in a name; who's in the game?

by Jay Arthur


One of the two worst-kept secrets in the corridors of Queen's Park nowadays is that Ontario's Minister of the Environment is about to declare that household hazardous waste (HHW) is "designated" under the Waste Diversion Act.
You can just imagine how thrilled the good folks at the Waste Diversion Ontario (WDO) Board will be to hear the news. They are already carrying the financial burden of three floundering "designees".
Tires and oil programs are mired by a combination of in-fighting and incineration politics, and electronics is...well, just mired. (What is taking so long?)
Anyway, all this miring means no money is coming in from the industry funding organizations (IFOs) that were supposed to pay for WDO's day-to-day operations. And this leads us nicely to the second worst-kept secret in those hallowed corridors: the fact that WDO needs bailing out again.
You can't blame them. Given the way this whole Waste Diversion Act system was set up, this kind of financial mess was almost inevitable. Did anyone honestly think it would be easy to develop and sell diversion programs for oil and tires?
So it is be hoped that if the Minister does indeed designate HHW she will do something to clear the log-jam on the three orphans.
The tire plan process has been like watching a bad soap opera from Day One, and has been, frankly, a bit embarrassing for the Province, not to mention the WDO board, I imagine. Had the WDO finances been better, perhaps the board would have been a little less ready to rubber stamp a plan that was clearly flawed from the start. Not that showing a ministerial green light to the Lafarge tire-burning application has helped. But you can't blame the WDO folks for that either.
And give them credit, they did turn the first oil plan down.
Maybe oil will come back as part of the HHW plan, as some have urged
The big questions on everyone's mind are what she would actually call it and who would be the IFO if the Minister did

designate HHW.
Many of the producers of household products that are deemed as potentially hazardous have taken to describing them as "special", as in household special waste. Given that "special" is not a term one readily associates with hazard this seems to run contrary to the whole notion of advising the public to be careful.
And the next time you see a child about to pour paint thinners into his orange juice, I have a feeling the word "special" is not likely to be part of the conversation as you seek to educate him about why that particular cocktail mix is not a good idea.
But the move to the name change has been very successful, and many municipalities are even using the euphemism. It will be interesting to see how the Minister terms these products if the designation rumours are true.
There is no obvious group of HHW stewards so the question of who becomes the IFO looms large. Many of the HHW stewards are already stewards for blue box materials.
Certainly, CSR has been positioning itself for the HHW IFO job and after getting the nod on electronics with no previous experience in the field,  is likely quite confident that a three-peat is on the cards.
The existing relationships with many of the HHW stewards would be a big plus and if it can't find the expertise amongst the existing 22 Stewardship Ontario staff, CSR can always buy it.
Indeed, a job posting for a Program Implementation Support Manager last month sought someone to "provide technical support in the area of management of other waste streams and other stewardship programs for example, the management of household hazardous waste (HHW) and waste electronics products."
Also lurking in the shadows is another organization: the British Columbia-based Product Care, with lots of experience in managing HHW programs and less of the baggage that CSR brings to the table for Ontario municipalities.
Whoever gets the job, let's hope to heaven that the Minister can offer the WDO board some assurance that a plan can be developed (and approved) before the next financial crisis hits.