This might have been the perfect opportunity for Health Canada to finally put a regulatory stake in the ground and define the rules for the safe reuse of (non-sharps) medical devices, with or without refurbishment and/or other reprocessing. After all, Health Canada’s Action Plan on Medical Devices defined its mandate as “continuously improving safety, effectiveness and quality” of medical devices, all of which are directly relevant to the burgeoning market for used medical devices. Presumably…
The attention currently devoted to plastics waste in both the public and private sectors is breathtaking. A growing number of international brands have made recycled content commitments for their plastic packaging and related containers. The European Union’s Strategy for Plastics in a Circular Economy has begun implementing changes to the EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive and the UK Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) has just released a well-developed plastics packaging taxation…
We are excited to announce that Baker & McKenzie’s Consumer Goods & Retail (CG&R) Industry Group, along with the support of the UN Global Impact, is hosting its annual flagship event at the UN Headquarters in New York on Thursday, February 21, 2019. Sustainability in the CG&R Industry will the main focus of the event, and Baker & McKenzie is delighted to welcome UN Global Compact CEO & Executive Director Lise Kingo and Fordham Law…
Jonathan Cocker’s latest blog entry entitled “Orphaned Eco-Fees Raises Legal Questions for Electronics Industry” has been republished on the Advanced Waste Solutions website. To read the article, click HERE.
Ontario’s waste electrical and electronic equipment (e-waste) stewardship obligations are being transitioned to a circular economy legal regime. The government-overseen e-waste program is being wound-up and will effectively cease as of June 30, 2020. The program has managed to generate such a surplus of funds from consumers it otherwise would pay the electronics recycling industry that it’s obtained approval from the Ontario government to grant the industry, and presumably in turn, consumers a “fee holiday”…
The calls for dramatic regulatory changes addressing food and other organic waste are echoing across international and domestic markets. Commercial food companies from producers, post-harvest handling and storage operators, processors and manufacturers, distributers and retailers will have obligations under the coming circular economy regimes to both recapture the resource value from food waste and to prevent its landfill disposal. The time for the food industry to provide input into these changes, both globally and locally,…
Jonathan Cocker’s latest blog entries entitled “Electronics & Batteries Producer Responsibility Consultation Ends February 6th, 2019” has been published as a featured post on Compliance and Risks’ blog. The article has also been republished in Advanced Waste Solutions’ e-magazine.
As part of the legal directive to transfer current government-overseen waste diversion obligations to a privately-run Individual Producer Responsibility regime (IPR), the Ontario Ministry of the Environment is currently holding consultations with stakeholders in the electronics/electrical equipment (EEE) and batteries industries regarding the coming circular economy regulation for EEE and batteries (and their packaging) and key decisions affecting industry are in the process of being made. What’s the Mandate? In understanding the anticipated reach of…
Jonathan Cocker’s “Canada Chapter” is set to be published in The Environment and Climate Change Law Review’s Third Edition, later in 2019. To learn more about the publication, or to view the current, Second Edition, click HERE. ____ For further information, please contact Jonathan Cocker: [email protected] 416-865-6908
“Making producers responsible for the full life-cycle of their products and the waste they produce will help companies to consider what materials they use in and to package their products, and find new and innovative cost-effective ways to recycle them and lower costs for consumers.” – Preserving and Protecting our Environment for Future Generations. A Made-in-Ontario Environment Plan, Ontario Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks, 2018 The change in government in Ontario in the summer of…