A System Destined to Fail

Shane Peters | Jul 04, 2025

This EPR (Extended Producer Responsibility)  program was supposed to make producers accountable for packaging waste. But what we’re seeing is a poorly communicated, bureaucratically distant, and locally disconnected approach. There’s no flexibility, no contingency planning, and no meaningful public engagement.

If this is the future of recycling in Ontario, we should all be concerned.

It’s not too late to fix this—but it starts with accountability, transparency, and a willingness by the Province to listen to the people most affected by its decisions. Until then, residents will be left trying to make sense of a system that seems determined to confuse them—and landfill volumes may rise as a result.