Ontarians could face eco fee on electronics to offset recycling costs

CP - TORONTO (CP) - Ontario residents will likely have to pay more for their televisions, computers and electronic gadgets under a recycling plan now under development.Ontario residents will likely have to start paying more for their televisions, computers and electronic gadgets under a recycling plan now being developed at the request of the province's governing Liberals.

Environment Minister Laurel Broten said Tuesday she is asking Waste Diversion Ontario to come up with a plan by February to recycle electronics including printers, televisions and computer monitors.

The group will look at provinces like British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Alberta, where experts say consumers are educated about the cost of tossing out their old electronics by paying an "eco-fee" of up to $45 when they purchase new TVs, computers and printers.

Such fees are not out of the question in Ontario, Broten said.

"All of us understand the costs associated to the environment with the products that we consume," she said.

"Moving forward as a society . . . we are all going to have to come to grips with the environmental footprint and legacy that we leave."

Although the plan is due back in February, Broten admitted it will take time before any system is up and running.

"We are starting from a standstill point," she said. The government is not setting any targets for electronic waste diversion as part of the plan, she added.

But regardless of the logistics of recycling electronic waste, experts say consumers are the ones who will be footing the bill.

"The consumer will pay for this - the only question is whether they'll see what they're paying for," said Gemma Zecchini, chairwoman of Waste Diversion Ontario.

Shoppers in Alberta have been paying eco-fees for two years, while Saskatchewan retailers started charging the fee in February and British Columbia consumers will start paying it Aug. 1.

But Zecchini said that extra cost - between $5 to $45, depending on the product - is not necessarily a bad thing.

"It sends a signal to the consumer," she said. "It trains the consumer that there is a post-consumer, waste component to this product that they're buying and that they have to pay so they can eliminate the footprint."

Jay Illingworth, vice-president of Electronic Product Stewardship Canada, said eco-fees pay for a kind of recycling that is complicated and expensive.

A responsible recycling program takes into account occupational health and safety, and ensures old electronics aren't simply exported off-shore, he said.

"It costs money to do the right thing," Illingworth said.

But critics say it's the third time the Liberals have announced their intention to divert electronics from Ontario landfills and they doubt people will see a plan any time soon.

Conservative Laurie Scott said the prospect of paying more at the till for electronics amounts to another broken promise by the Liberals, who pledged in 2003 that they wouldn't raise taxes.

"They said it's still going to be charged to the consumer at the end of the day," Scott said. "So it's another broken promise and another recycled plan that they've announced three times."

New Democrat Peter Tabuns said the announcement was recycling at its finest.

"This is the third announcement that we're going to have a plan brought forward," said Tabuns, former director of Greenpeace.

"The minister is clearly practicing recycling, but isn't implementing the recycling that we need."

CP - TORONTO (CP) - Ontario residents will likely have to pay more for their televisions, computers and electronic gadgets under a recycling plan now under development.

Source:Yahoo Canada Top Stories