Ford government proposes major rollback of Blue Box recycling rules

National Observer

06-06-2025

The Ford government has quietly proposed major changes to Ontario's Blue Box recycling program — changes advocates say will increase pollution, reduce accountability for waste producers and place more costs on renters and municipalities.
The new rules would delay key recycling targets by five years, giving producers until 2031 to meet recovery goals for materials like paper, plastic, metal, glass and beverage containers. Those targets had been set to take effect in 2026.
The proposed changes would eliminate rules requiring producers to collect packaging waste from apartments, long-term care homes, retirement homes and schools without municipal pickup. Beverage companies would no longer be responsible for containers consumed outside the home. The plan would also allow producers to burn non-recyclable plastic in incinerators or cement kilns and still count it as recycling.
The Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks says the changes are intended to manage 'higher than expected cost growth' and ensure a 'stable and sustainable' blue box system during the province's transition to full producer responsibility.
The government would allow producers up to 15 per cent of recycling targets to be met by burning non-recyclable plastic waste in incinerators or cement kilns.
Under the province's Resource Recovery and Circular Economy Act, producers — including brand owners, retailers and importers — are required to manage recycling programs for packaging and single-use items. The current changes would weaken the 2021 regulations that aimed to shift this responsibility away from municipalities and onto the companies that create waste.
Critics say the proposal marks a dramatic reversal of more than a decade of progress on waste reduction and recycling in the province.
Big retailers and consumer brands have been lobbying the Ford government to weaken Ontario's Blue Box rules, claiming recycling costs are too high.
Karen Wirsig, senior program manager at Environmental Defence, said the changes would increase plastic pollution, promote incineration and burden communities with more garbage, all while letting major producers — like grocery chains and beverage companies — off the hook.
'The government is betraying Ontarians by seeking to reverse requirements that would have reduced single-use and unrecyclable plastics and to delay enforcement of these — now weakened — rules for another five years,' Wirsig said.
The Ford government's proposal comes just a day after it passed the controversial Bill 5, which also fast-tracks large waste facility approval under the claim that Ontario is facing a landfill crisis.
'From the moves this week, it is clear that the premier and the government think more garbage, more dumps and more waste-burners are good for Ontario,' Wirsig said, calling it a coordinated shift toward deregulation that benefits producers and the waste industry at the expense of environmental health and ordinary Ontarians.
The government also proposes slashing the recycling target for flexible plastic packaging, such as food wrappers and plastic bags, from 25 per cent to just five per cent. The ministry says industry stakeholders argue these materials are costly, hard to recycle and often contaminate other recyclables.
Komal Habib, an associate professor at the University of Waterloo and expert in industrial ecology, said delaying recovery targets by five years is excessive and risks weakening Ontario's circular economy goals. 'It's too long of a transition time to allow producers to plan and make investments for collection and recycling activities,' Habib said. On the decision to exclude multi-residential buildings and public spaces from producer collection responsibilities, Habib said it could have serious consequences. These sites produce a growing share of urban waste, especially in cities like Toronto and Waterloo — leaving them out of the system could hamper progress toward circular economy goals.
Ontario is still dumping billions of bottles and cans, while other provinces profit from a deposit-return recycling system. Despite 81 per cent of Ontarians supporting such a system, last year the Ford government scrapped the non-alcoholic drink container deposit-return program, citing cost concerns 'for small businesses and families,' without providing any estimates.
Opposition slams industry influence
Big retailers and consumer brands have been lobbying the Ford government to weaken Ontario's Blue Box rules, claiming recycling costs are too high.
Last year, in a joint letter, several Ontario municipal organizations raised concerns about industry lobbying for changes to the province's Blue Box Regulation, warning it could undermine the goals of extended producer responsibility and shift costs back onto municipalities.
Ontario NDP environment critic Peter Tabuns said the Ford government's decision to delay recycling targets and loosen producer obligations is a clear example of corporate influence overriding public interest. He argued that big companies have had more than a decade to develop less wasteful packaging but failed to act. Tabuns said the idea behind extended producer responsibility was to force innovation by making polluters pay, but the changes signal a retreat from that principle. He added that the government's decision to allow incineration to count toward recycling targets would worsen climate emissions and increase toxic pollution.
Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner said the government is effectively dismantling a system that was meant to make waste producers accountable and encourage less packaging waste. Instead, he warned, the rollback will lead to more garbage, higher costs for taxpayers and missed opportunities to build a circular economy.
Ontario should be moving toward strict producer responsibility, zero waste targets, and greater inclusion of commercial and multi-residential buildings in recycling programs, not backing away from them, he said.
A more effective approach would be to reduce the delay to no more than two years and push producers to invest in infrastructure, Habib suggested. She also urged the government to fund academic research to evaluate whether current recovery targets are realistic and sustainable.