The regional district board moved to ask the B.C. Minister of Environment to increase standards in the province’s major appliance stewardship program at the January 10 board meeting.
The province mandated that producers of large appliances begin paying for and managing collection of their end of life products in July last year, but the regional district believes that the Environmental Management Act Recycling Regulation fails to go far enough.
Of particular concern to the RDOS are hazardous materials like refrigerants, which remain the responsiblity of the recycler and processor. It costs the regional district $19,182 in 2011 to remove refrigerants from disposed refrigeration units at the landfill, and the regional district would like to see that cost legislated to the producers of large appliances. A regional district staff report offered four key concerns about the setup of the present large appliance stewardship program:
- No other stewardship program ignores hazardous materials contained within their products.
- Since it costs money to capture the refrigerant prior to recycling, there exists an incentive for less scrupulous businesses to improperly dispose of Ozone Depleting Substances (ODS) .
- Many local governments subsidize metal recycling, which contradicts the ethics of a true Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) program.
- No program exists within the large appliance program to track large appliances in the recycling stream; without one, the obligation to report on the effectiveness of the recycling program is compromised.
The regional district board agreed to advise the Minister of Environment that the Major Appliance program does not meet the standards of Extended Producer responsibility. The regional district board will also submit a resolution to the Southern Interior Local Government Association (SILGA) seeking their support to bring the matter forward to the Union of B.C. Municipalities (UBCM).