Éco Entreprises Québec (ÉEQ), the organization recently designated to manage selective collection throughout Quebec, announced partnerships with organizations representing 550 municipalities on how to implement extended producer responsibility.
Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) is the principle according to which companies that market products and packaging in Quebec are responsible for their end-of-life management.
In 2022, Recyc-Québec entrusted Éco Entreprises Québec with the mandate to modernize selective collection, which should make it possible to standardize, across the province, the materials accepted in recovery bins.
“It leads to the creation of a system where we have an overall vision. We are a bit of the conductor for all the stages, from the moment the truck picks up the materials from the citizen, to the recycling of the product,” explained Philippe Cantin, vice-president, public affairs and government relations. of Éco Entreprises Québec (ÉEQ).
EPR “brings traceability” and “accountability”, which will prevent, for example, recyclable materials “ending up in Africa or India in conditions that are not acceptable”, added Mr. Cantin in an interview with The Canadian Press.
An operational reform in 2025
ÉEQ represents producers who market packaged products, containers and printed matter and has the mandate to reach an agreement with the municipalities, or with organizations that represent the municipalities, so that the collection reform is fully operational in 2025.
Blainville, Boisbriand, Brossard, Granby, Magog, Repentigny, Rouyn-Noranda, Saguenay, Saint-Bruno-de-Montarville, Sainte-Thérèse, Salaberry-de-Valleyfield, Sept-Îles, Sherbrooke, Sorel-Tracy, Thetford Mines and Victoriaville are among the cities with more than 25,000 inhabitants that have just reached an agreement with ÉEQ.
Montreal, Gatineau and Laval already had agreements concluded with Éco Entreprises Québec.
More ecological packaging
Since extended producer responsibility ensures that companies are responsible for the costs linked to the different stages of managing a product at the end of its life, it can also encourage innovation and the design of more ecological packaging.
“From the moment we have to manage the costs of the entire chain, we will be able to have a fair cost associated with each type of packaging”, so “we will support companies so that they design packaging better” or that they use “less packaging,” explained Mr. Cantin.
According to the President and CEO of ÉEQ, Maryse Vermette, “the partnership with municipalities and the organizations within which they are grouped creates a path towards a circular economy.”
The details of the partnership agreements with the municipalities aim mainly to “state the respective responsibilities of the two parties, supervise the operationalization of the selective collection service, establish the list of materials accepted in the recovery bin and set the parameters for reimbursement and compensation by ÉEQ”.