Hi everyone,

FYI:

Ontario Taking Next Step to Go Waste-Free

March 1, 2017

Province Increasing Recycling, Creating Jobs and Fighting Climate Change

Ontario is working to create a zero-waste future with the launch of a strategy that will divert more waste from landfills, create jobs and help fight climate change.

Today,Minister of the Environment and Climate Change Glen Murray announced Ontario's Strategy for a Waste-Free Ontario: Building the Circular Economy. This new strategy outlines the province's plan to fight climate change by reducing landfilled materials that could otherwise be reused, recycled, composted and reintegrated into the economy.

The strategy includes 15 concrete actions to build up the province's circular economy and help reduce greenhouse gas emissions from landfills, such as:

• Requiring producers to take full responsibility for the environmental and financial management of their products and packaging, including small appliances, electrical tools, batteries, fluorescent bulbs, mattresses, carpets, clothing and furniture
• Implementing a framework to reduce the volume of food and organic waste going to landfill
• Requiring industrial, commercial and institutional sectors to divert more of the waste they produce from landfills
• Banning certain materials, such as food waste, beverage containers, corrugated cardboard and fluorescent bulbs and tubes, from disposal and driving creative strategies to reuse and recycle these items
• Improving oversight and accountability in the waste management sector, including by requiring producers to register and report on their waste management activities

Reducing waste and building a circular economy is part of our plan to create jobs, grow our economy and help people in their everyday lives.