Earlier this week, the Ontario government announced an update to its provincial recycling plan.
As part of the updated regulations, newspaper companies will not be required to pay for the collection, or recycling, of their paper products.
Paul Deegan, News Media Canada’s president and CEO applauds the exception. He has issued the following statement:
“Canada’s newspaper publishers applaud the Ontario government’s leadership in recognizing that newspapers are not packaging and should be exempt from extended producer responsibility fees.
We hope other provinces will follow Ontario’s lead in eliminating this punitive measure. The unintended consequence of EPR on newspapers is to reduce the number of pages in a newspaper or for the paper to simply close or go online only. This has a detrimental effect on small business advertisers and readers, especially ethnic communities and seniors, who rely on printed newspapers for trusted news and information.
Newsprint has the highest level of collection of all recyclable materials, a stable end market, and high commercial value.”
