Packaging Waste: ‘If you make it, you take it’

TORONTO — Ontario’s environment minister says he plans to hold manufacturers of products more responsible for the packaging they produce.

Speaking at Walmart Canada’s Sustainable Packaging Conference in Toronto, John Gerretsen said Ontario’s new approach to waste diversion and a proposed new waste framework is based on the principle of full extended producer responsibility.

"Companies putting products and packaging into the marketplace are charged with managing those products and packaging at the end of their useful life," he said. "Quite simply, if you make it, you take it after its usefulness is over and done."

He called extended producer responsibility a "realistic and logical step," saying Ontario is behind many other jurisdictions around the world on the issue.

"Producers control the decisions around products and packaging and instead of putting the onus on the waste managers and municipalities to deal with this material at the back end, we’re putting responsibility on the front-end process," he said.

"This involves the entire organization, including procurement, design, sales, marketing as well as the supply chain."

Gerretsen congratulated Walmart Canada for its environmental efforts — particularly its dedication to reducing packaging and the introduction of a sustainability scorecard for suppliers.

"In 2009 the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment agreed to introduce extended producer responsibility requirements for packaging within six months across this country. Here in Ontario, we want to do better and we want to do it faster," he said.

"The reality is that Ontarians are way ahead of us. They are demanding products that don’t burden the environment and they are helping to drive the innovations in products and packaging. Businesses quite frankly, as well as government, must respond quite quickly to stay ahead of the curve."

Duncan McNaughton, Walmart’s chief merchandising and marketing officer urged suppliers to upload environmental footprint data on all of their products to the company’s Sustainability Scorecard. He gave them a deadline of July 1 to have 100 percent of Walmart SKUs in the system.

"This is very important to our business model," McNaughton said.