Facts About Ontario’s Hazardous Waste Program

For automotive businesses, under the Municipal Hazardous and Special Waste (MHSW) Program it is the brand owners or first importers who sell through automotive service providers to customers such as fleet owners/managers, garages that service vehicles, farmers, and other assorted “walk-in” customers that are obligated under the program to pay a fee to Stewardship Ontario based on the amount and type of material they introduce into the Ontario market.

The industry fees remitted to Stewardship Ontario are used to fund incentives for pick-up and diversion of waste products and packaging, to fund promotion and education activities directed at consumers, to help support better recycling technologies, and to generally manage the waste materials collected in an environmentally responsible manner.

What are the designated materials?

The designated materials are specified in Phase 1 of the program (Phases 2 and 3 are currently being developed). The program covers materials from many industry sectors, but automotive-specific materials include oil filters and oil containers of 30 litres or less for a wide range of oil products such as engine and marine oils, hydraulic, power steering, and transmission fluids, prepackaged automotive antifreeze (engine coolant), and related containers up to 30L.

It should be noted that this program does not include waste oil or bulk antifreeze.

The first MHSW Steward’s Report and fees were due by October 31, 2008 on the first-quarter sales of MHSW product, July 1 to September 30, 2008.

It is the responsibility of individual stewards to determine how their fees will be managed internally and, ultimately, how the fees will be reflected in their product costs.

Remitters and remitter agreements A remitter is a company that agrees to report and pay fees on MHSW that the remitter sells/supplies in Ontario even though the remitter is not the brand owner or first importer of the product into Ontario. The remitter may be a supplier to the actual steward, or a customer of the steward.

The decision to enter into an agreement is between the steward and the remitter and does not remove the steward’s legal liability. The MHSW reporting system will require that the MHSW sales be reported separately for each steward/remitter arrangement and will enable both steward and remitter to review the MHSW sales data covered by the Remitter’s Agreement.

The arrangement must be made using the Remitter’s Agreement form specified by Stewardship Ontario, and requires authorization by Stewardship Ontario.

The Remitter’s Agreement is available on the Web at www.stewardshipontario.ca/mhsw/pdr/remitters/Remitter’s_Agreement. pdf.

MHSW Guidebook A guidebook has been developed for MHSW stewards and is available online at http://www.stewardshipontario.ca/mhsw/pdf/stewards/mhsm_guidebook1.pdf.

For more information, contact Dave Blundell, automotive and transporters/processors channel lead, Stewardship Ontario, tel: 416-919-5823, e-mail: dblundell@stewardshipontario.ca.