Happy New Year!
MMBC and its project team set aside the PPP Stewardship Plan for the past couple of weeks to spend time with family and friends and rest up for the busy times ahead. We hope that you too had a great holiday break!
The arrival of 2013 is a reminder that time continues to pass and the May 19, 2014 launch date for the PPP stewardship responsibility plan is inching closer. We are expecting that 2013 will be a busy year for MMBC and its project team.
To recap where we are now…
The PPP Stewardship Plan was submitted to the BC MOE on November 19, 2012 as required by the Recycling Regulation.
Recognizing that the PPP Stewardship Plan addresses materials that are currently being collected across BC and that local governments require time for committees, councils and boards to consider the plan, MMBC extended the consultation period and welcomed submissions through to December 14, 2012. MMBC received 19 submissions, one from a steward, one from a trade association representing stewards and the remaining 17 from local governments. These submissions are being reviewed and responses will be provided to each stakeholder. The Consultation Summary is being updated to include these submissions and responses and MMBC will consider, over the next couple of weeks, whether the PPP Stewardship Plan will be updated and resubmitted.
While the BC MOE reviews the PPP Stewardship Plan, the MMBC project team is organizing to implement the plan. Although the substantial implementation effort will occur after plan approval, some preliminary ground work is underway.
A Request for Expressions of Interest (REOI) to provide post-collection services is being prepared with the objective of releasing the document within the next few weeks.
The project team is continuing its discussions with end-markets, processors and other stakeholders to finalize the list of PPP to be collected at curbside and at depots, with the objective of including the list in the REOI.
To compile data for setting the collection market-clearing price financial incentives, the surveys completed by local governments during the Phase 1 project have been reviewed to identify those local governments that are likely to have separate costs for PPP curbside collection, multi-family building collection and the operation of depots receiving PPP. The project team will be contacting these local governments over the coming weeks to request their co-operation and to schedule meetings to review their collection costs in more detail than provided in the Phase 1 surveys.
In addition to the implementation ground work described above, the project team is continuing its ongoing effort to identify stewards of PPP to alert them to their new obligations under Schedule 5 of the Recycling Regulation. The number of Letters of Intent executed by obligated stewards continues to rise, with more than 100 received since the PPP Stewardship Plan was submitted to the MOE in November. Even though the more than 300 stewards that have submitted Letters of Intent include many of the largest PPP stewards, MMBC is continuing to reach out to obligated PPP stewards to encourage them to join MMBC with the objective of representing all PPP stewards.