A new provincial recycling program that sparked outcry from both cities and small businesses two months ago has now earned the support of many municipalities and become slightly more palatable to businesses.
This week, many Metro Vancouver municipalities signed five-year contracts with Multi Material BC (MMBC), after the agency made several concessions.
"The terms of the contract themselves were unacceptable, so that had to change," Richmond's Mayor Malcolm Brodie told Business in Vancouver.
MMBC is an industry-run, non-profit agency that was created in 2011. It's responsible for implementing an amendment to the province's recycling legislation that targets printed paper and packaging. Under the legislation, producers will be responsible for collecting and recycling their products, similar to the way current stewardship programs for things like tires, paint and electronics work.
Many municipalities had been concerned that they were being rushed to sign a contract with not enough information about the costs and impacts on recycling services.
Municipalities who have signed the agreements with MMBC will contract their in-house recycling services to MMBC and receive a portion of $60 million in financial incentives for signing up.
The City of Vancouver will announce whether it will sign a contract with MMBC this week, according to a spokesperson.
This summer, MMBC sent confusing letters to small businesses, telling them they had to tally up every kind of packaging they supply to customers. The letters warned that a $200,000 fine could be levied against them if they failed to report and that their businesses' operations could be halted.
The BC Chamber of Commerce has said the reporting requirements for the program are too onerous for small businesses, and will require hours of staff time to do the complex calculations.
In September, B.C.'s environment minister, Mary Polak, ordered MMBC to work more closely with small businesses to resolve the problems.
Allen Langdon, the managing director of MMBC, said he has been meeting with businesses throughout the province.
Several changes have now been made to the small business requirements. Businesses will not have to report their packaging if they have under $1 million in sales, if they put less than one tonne of packaging into the marketplace and if the business has a single retail store as opposed to being part of a chain or franchise.
MMBC will also introduce a new online calculator to make the reporting requirements easier, Langdon said.
The BC Chamber of Commerce will meet with its member chambers on Monday to discuss whether those changes go far enough.
But John Winter, president and CEO of the BC Chamber, said he did not believe MMBC had done enough to educate small businesses about the new system.
"[Langdon has] got a big chore and so little time to do it in," Winter said. "And it's just him — he has no staff."
