There is no question that dramatic changes are coming for the supply and reverse supply chain for plastics that will impact packaging, containers, and plastic products. From resins and polymer mixes to ocean plastic clean up and waste export bans and everything in between, it is difficult to not foresee a fundamental regime shift coming for the regulation of plastics globally. But just who decides on these new rules and how will disparate initiatives and…
2019 will likely go down as the year that (developing) Asian countries have finally had enough of western garbage. Indeed, their final victory in repelling imports of unrecyclable plastics and other wastes won’t come too soon for international brand owners whose reputations have increasingly been harmed with the scrutiny now being paid to the final destinations of their products and packaging. The Shift in Asian Waste Imports It started last year with the China National Sword,…
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,…
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…
A recently released report to British Columbia Ministry of the Environment, Competition under Extended Producer Responsibility in British Columbia, Regulating for Environmental Effectiveness and Economic Efficiency, is the latest, and perhaps most thorough, assessment of the importance of economic actors at each stage in a reverse supply chain for collecting and processing materials being free to compete or collaborate in achieving environmental and market outcomes under EPR. The Limits of Recycling Monopsonies The report highlights…
Last week Jonathan Cocker attended the International Bar Association’s African Regional Conference on the Environment in Cape Town, South Africa on November 28th-30th, 2018. Jonathan spoke on the panel, “Urban Waste Management: What Africa is Doing”, alongside fellow panelists Lloyd Christie (Director at ENSafrica), Richard Emery (Executive Associate, JG Afrika), Sally-Anne Kasner (Founder of Cirulcar Vision and Operations Manager of EcoStandard), and Richard Summers (Managing Director, Richard Summers Inc.) The panel discussed the urban transformation…