The revised Recycle BC Program Plan has been submitted to BC Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy. Over 150 organizations and communities participated in consultation meetings and Recycle BC received 29 written submissions as part of Phase Two consultations. Recycle BC gave careful consideration to all input received, a summary of which can be found in the Consultation Report appended to the Plan.
As a result of stakeholder feedback, Recycle BC made three important revisions to the Plan as follows:
- In light of the steward community’s concerns about the broadened scope of designated materials, the proposed expansion of designated materials to include packaging-like products and single-use plastic items has been removed. Recycle BC has asked the government that if they wish to broaden the scope of the program, they engage stakeholders in discussions on any regulatory amendments and provide clarity on any new items to be added.
- To address local governments’ concerns regarding eligibility criteria for receiving recycling services the program plan now states that local communities that have had a curbside garbage collection program in place for at least two years prior to the proposed introduction of curbside recycling be eligible to join the Recycle BC program, provided other applicable criteria is met. The program plan also contains a new commitment to develop an equivalency definition for communities with 5,000 residents that does not require incorporation as a criteria for eligibility and commits that upon completion of its current expansion phase, to conduct a province-wide depot accessibility assessment to determine the adequacy of depot coverage.
- In response to local governments’ concerns that Recycle BC does not provide a transparent methodology for calculating incentive rates, the program plan has been revised to require that the next cost study be overseen by the Recycle BC Advisory Committee, which includes local governments such as Metro Vancouver, Regional District of East Kootenay and the Town of Comox. In addition, the study will be conducted in 2020, rather than 2021, as originally planned.
The entire Stakeholder Consultation Report addressing these and more stakeholder feedback is available here.
Having received approval from the Recycle BC Board of Directors, the Plan has now been submitted to the BC Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy (MoECCS). The Plan requires approval by the MoECCS prior to implementation and may be subject to change if requested by the government.
We thank you for your ongoing support and participation during the consultation process and will advise stakeholders when feedback is received from the MoECCS on the Program Plan.