About CSR

As a national organization representing the stewardship interests of our members—province by province, throughout the country—CSR carefully monitors extended producer responsibility (EPR) policies that are in place today, and the developments in emerging policies that will face companies operating in the Canadian marketplace tomorrow.

To meet these EPR challenges head on, CSR maintains contact with opinion leaders and government policy makers throughout the country. This proactive stance positions CSR to be the first point of contact when governments begin EPR policy discussions. By being asked to participate in discussions at the ground floor, CSR can represent industry and advocate for EPR programs that create a level playing field for companies within industry sectors and help to design programs that can be implemented and operated at the lowest cost possible.

CSR has developed a network of strong strategic alliances offering its partners access to unmatched technical and policy development expertise and the opportunity to participate in leading edge thinking on strategic, technical and market development matters that affect the end-of-life management of products and packaging.

From our initial focus the development of the province-wide Blue Box recycling program in Ontario, the scope of our work has necessarily expanded necessarily to an ever growing number of targeted products—organics and waste electrical and electronic equipment waste are two high profile examples.

Harmonization among Provinces

As EPR programs rapidly increase, industry will be required to report and pay fees on a product by product and province by province basis. This plethora of obligations can increase significantly the complexity and internal costs of reporting. As directed by members, CSR is actively promoting the harmonization of stewardship regulations from province to province wherever possible and developing simplified reporting mechanisms for members to reduce this burden. At a minimum, companies that operate across provincial borders should be provided the opportunity to discharge their responsibilities through a single reporting structure.

Sharing Responsibility

With industry stepping up to take on more direct product stewardship responsibility, CSR’s job is to help shape more effective EPR policies and to help its members discharge their obligations in the most cost effective manner possible. The most effective product and packaging stewardship programs are those which share responsibility appropriately and fairly along the entire production and consumption chain—including industry, government and consumers. While responsibilities may differ from product to product and from region to region, it is essential that there be a level playing field for individual companies that compete within the same industry sector. Programs should operate in a transparent manner and the costs should be kept as low as possible.

Strategic Alliances

CSR has strong alliances with key trade associations in Canada to represent their members’ interests on stewardship issues. These associations include:

These associations include:

Food and Consumer Products Canada
Canadian Council of Grocery Distributors
Canadian Federation of Independent Grocers
Refreshments Canada
Canadian Chemical Specialty Products Association

In addition, CSR has established partnerships with other key stewardship organizations throughout Canada. These include:

Encorp Pacific in British Columbia
Collecté selective Québec and Éco Entreprise Québec

Stewardship Program Delivery

Beyond the design and development of effective EPR policies, CSR plays an active role in program delivery. The primary example of this to date is the role that CSR plays as the secretariat to Stewardship Ontario, the industry funding organization which delivers the programs prescribed by the Blue Box Program Plan (BBPP). A full description of Stewardship Ontario and its work can be found on its website including the obligations of industry stewards under the Ontario Waste Diversion Act, 2002.

Stewardship Ontario

As secretariat, CSR is responsible for the registration of obligated companies, their reporting requirements under the Act, collection and distribution of funds and the design and implementation of programs to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of municipal recycling programs.

Beyond Canada

CSR is an associate member of PRO Europe, which includes representation from national recycling organizations in 26 countries. As a member, CSR is responsible for protecting the “Green Dot” trademark across the NAFTA region. Through participation in PRO Europe’s general managers meetings, CSR has access to leading edge thinking and program development on strategic, technical and market development matters focusing on a broad range of consumer products and packaging.

Technical Tools

Over the years, CSR has been instrumental in the development of a series of important waste management measurement tools that allow municipalities to assess their tonnage diversion and the effectiveness of existing and planned programs. Among them are:

Tonnage and Financial Datacall, which is an on-line system municipalities use to calculate and report tonnage and cost data
GAP a standardized system that allows municipalities to analyze the components of their waste stream and produce accurate, comparable waste diversion figures; and
Integrated Waste Management (IWM) - a user-friendly computer tool, which allows municipalities to assess the environmental and financial impact of current or proposed residential waste management practices.

Municipalities and jurisdictions throughout Canada are adopting the use of these tools to gain a greater understanding of waste generation, diversion and associated costs.

Our Roots

For more than two decades, our member companies, through CSR, have worked in partnership with municipalities and the Ontario Government to build the Blue Box recycling program infrastructure across Ontario. CSR’s members, who participated in the program voluntarily contributed more than $45 million to help build the system, investing in it because it made business sense to establish a system that recovered their products and packaging as cost efficiently as possible.

CSR’s historical roots

Ontario’s Blue Box system is:

cost effective in comparison to other diversion systems (additional information about cost comparisons is available to members in the For Members section);
effective at diverting recyclable material from disposal—and it continues to improve (for more details, visit www.wdo.ca);
and strongly supported by the people of Ontario.

But interest in and commitment to diverting waste from disposal does not stop at the borders of Ontario. The growing demand throughout Canada for manufacturers and distributors of consumer products to take more responsibility for consumer products and packaging led the Board of Directors to decide that CSR should expand to a national organization. CSR applies the skills and experience it acquired in Ontario when it is invited to discuss stewardship issues across Canada.

Of Note: Included in the Archive section of this website is a broad range of documents that comprise important work CSR has undertaken in the past and that continues to be of interest to people involved in waste diversion activities.