Circular plastics economy engagement

Overview

We gathered input on the design of an Extended Producer Responsibility approach to plastics, packaging, paper and household hazardous waste. This approach would support a circular plastics economy to help us better manage single-use plastics and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by about 72,000 tonnes.

A circular economy is a method of reusing, recycling and remanufacturing materials, such as plastics, across multiple lifecycles. Extended Producer Responsibility shifts the cost of recycling from municipalities and taxpayers to manufacturers.

This is part of Alberta’s Natural Gas Vision and Strategy to reduce waste in our landfills while diversifying our economy and creating jobs.

We collected feedback on the following topics:

• shifting recycling and disposal costs to manufacturers
• strategy design of the program
• materials to be included in the program, including blue box recycling materials and household hazardous waste
• potential fees at point of purchase
• barriers, challenges and opportunities