Municipal, industrial sectors are ready.
What on earth is Ontario waiting for?

Waste Diversion Ontario subcommittee comprising municipal and industry representatives recently committed millions of dollars to an initiative that will view the province as a series of "waste-shed" regions to be serviced, as opposed to dozens of individual programs looking to become more efficient.
It's all part of a new strategy the committee confirmed back in July 2011.
While still operating under the rubric of continuous improvement, the new funding focus clearly anticipates a world where Ontario's recycling programs will be under industry, not municipal, control.
It could well be that those who agreed to this change of priority for funds know something we don't. These funds are, after all, part of the stewards' share of municipal recycling costs.
Perhaps the minutes from future WDO board meetings will provide some insight, although we've seen nothing posted to date.
The first and very welcome issue of the MIPC Minute, released in the fall, did note that the change "will set the basis for the implementation of full Extended Producer Responsibility".
This was before the election, even as one of the parties, Mr. Hudak's Progressive Conservatives, was talking quite loudly about "reviewing" all the provincial programs.
Either way, a request for proposals for the optimization/regionalization study was prepared. It actually hit the street a few days after the election and was awarded just before Christmas to StewardEdge (formerly Corporations Supporting Recycling), and some U.S. partners.
Had the election result been different, one wonders if the RFP would still have gone out.
But it did go out and work is already well under way, with a report anticipated in the spring. It's a big project.
In all, up to $8 million of the 2011 Continuous Improvement Fund budget and 50% of the 2012 dollars have been set aside for optimization work (which means regionalization).
That's a lot of municipal dollars (in effect), so confirmation that the EPR will move ahead cannot come soon enough

by Jay Arthur

Happy New Year to everyone, and in particular to the good folks at the Ministry of the Environment in Ontario.
I hate to be a party pooper, but now that the holidays are over I think we are in need of a reality check.
We are past the magic 100 days since the election, so any pretense of a honeymoon period is over and it's time to get something done.
In British Columbia, we are already committed and moving to full funding for our blue box. Quebec is going the same route.
I realize the world does not entirely revolve around the Internet, but a casual glance at the MOE website is not reassuring to anyone looking for progress on the waste file in Ontario, or any other environmental file, come to that.
Other than some new postings on the environmental approvals process (which you have to look for), it would appear the MOE thinks the only thing worth telling the world about since the election is windmill noise.
Given the fact that the Environmental Commissioner of Ontario (ECO) stated very publically in his report before Christmas that the province really should get things moving in the world of waste, you'd think there would have been something by now.
The ECO report came after municipalities and several environmental organizations had urged action, too. So, there is plenty of political support for extended producer responsibility (EPR) and all the financial benefits it brings to the municipal sector.
A few words of encouragement would also bring a little certainty to the private sector, which is fully expecting to be on the hook for the management of recycling. It is already planning for it in British Columbia and Quebec.
Nothing has actually been said out loud by government officials that would suggest a reversal of the oft-repeated intention to make it so in Ontario, too.
I was hoping that having the election out of the way, the Premier's office could remove the blocks that had been placed under the wheels of the EPR bandwagon and get it moving again. As long as there is inaction, there is doubt.
It is not as if the municipalities are not showing faith. A