FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Environmental Group Urges All MPPs to Support Environment Commissioner’s Recommendations

TORONTO – The Toronto Environmental Alliance (TEA) called on all MPPs to support the Ontario Environmental Commissioner’s recommendations detailing how the Province should move forward with its plans to make manufacturers fully responsible for dealing with household toxic waste they create.

“Mr. Miller was quite clear that the Provincial Government is on the right track making manufacturers of toxic products responsible for managing the waste these products create,” said Franz Hartmann, Executive Director of the Toronto Environmental Alliance (TEA). “We also echo his call to move the full cost of managing toxic waste away from taxpayers and on to the manufacturers who create the waste.”

“I hope all MPPs hear this message loud and clear and support the Government as it moves towards making all manufacturers responsible for the waste they produce,” said Hartmann. “Mr. Hudak in particular, needs to pay attention to the Environment Commissioner. He needs to stop misrepresenting what eco fees are and who is responsible for them. If he doesn’t, he will undermine the system of producer responsibility and cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars.”

As the Environment Commissioner noted, industry designed a system to collect fees from manufactures who produce toxic products. The fees were then to be spent by an industry-run group (Stewardship Ontario) to collect toxic waste so that it does not end up harming the environment. Some retailers decided to show this fee as a separate item on the bill instead of just absorbing the cost into the sticker price.

“As the Environment Commissioner noted, it was retailers, not the government, who created eco fees,” said Hartmann. “Instead of blaming the Government for something they didn’t do, Mr. Hudak should be working with the Government to save taxpayers money. We need our MPPs working together to come up with new rules that move the financial burden away from taxpayers and on to the manufacturers that produce the wasteful products and packaging.”

Currently, Ontario taxpayers pay hundreds of millions of dollars annually to deal with the wasteful packaging and products produced by manufacturers. The Province is moving towards making these manufacturers responsible for paying the full cost of the waste they produce. This will not only save taxpayers a huge amount of money, it will help the environment as less waste ends up in landfill.

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For more information, contact:
Dr. Franz Hartmann, Executive Director  
cell: 416-606-8881