Frequently Asked Questions

A newspaper is a regularly (usually daily or weekly) printed document consisting of large, folded, stapled or unstapled, sheets of paper containing news reports, articles, photographs, and advertisements. Newspapers include broadsheet, tabloid, and free newspaper categories.

Newspapers have traditionally been published in print on low-grade paper known as newsprint. However, not all documents printed on newsprint are considered newspapers. For example, flyers printed on newsprint quality paper supplied separately from newspapers are not newspapers for the purpose of supply data reporting under the Blue Box Regulation.

For the purpose of supply reporting, newspapers include any supplemental advertisements and inserts that are provided with/inserted in them (e.g., a flyer or circular that is placed within the folds of a newspaper). Inserts may be composed of any material including, but not limited to, paper. See the FAQ: How do newspaper producers report their supply of newspapers?

Note that magazines are not considered newspapers; a magazine is a periodical publication containing articles and illustrations, typically covering a particular subject or area of interest, and printed on high-quality paper.

A newspaper producer is a person who supplies newspapers to consumers in Ontario. For the purpose of the Blue Box Regulation, newspapers include broadsheet, tabloid or free newspaper. For further information, see the FAQ: What is a newspaper?

Note that a producer of supplemental advertisements or flyers that are supplied with a newspaper would not be considered a newspaper producer as they do not supply the actual broadsheet, tabloid, or free newspaper. This producer cannot use the newspaper exemption percentage to be exempt from Blue Box collection and management requirements. See the FAQ: Are there exemptions for Blue Box producers?

For the purpose of reporting supply data under the Blue Box Regulation, the weight of newspaper, including any protective wrapping and supplemental advertisements and inserts, must be reported in the appropriate material categories. For example, newsprint must be reported in the ‘paper’ category, while any protective plastic wrapping must be reported as ‘flexible plastic’.

Then, producers will be asked to indicate what percentage of their total Blue Box material supply was newspaper, including any protective wrapping and supplemental advertisements and inserts, in that calendar year.

When reporting either their total supply or the percentage of their total supply that is newspaper, a producer should only include the weight of Blue Box materials for which they are the producer. For example, if flyers for which there is a different brand holder resident in Canada are supplied along with a newspaper and those flyers have a different brand holder resident in Canada, their weight should not be reported by the newspaper producer. Instead, it is the brand holder of those flyers who would be required to include the weight of those flyers in their own supply report.

See our FAQ: “What is a newspaper?”

See our FAQs to understand “What are paper products?” and “What are packaging-like products?”.

For paper products and packaging-like products, a person is considered a producer:

• if they are the brand holder of the paper product or packaging-like product and are resident in Canada
• if no resident brand holder, they are resident in Ontario and import the paper product or packaging-like product from outside of Ontario
• if no resident importer, they are the retailer that supplied the paper product or packaging-like product directly to consumers in Ontario
• if the retailer who would be the producer is a marketplace seller, the marketplace facilitator is the obligated producer
• if the producer is a business that is a franchise, the franchisor is the obligated producer, if that franchisor has franchisees that are resident in Ontario

Under the Blue Box Regulation, paper products include printed and unprinted paper, such as a newspaper, magazine, greeting cards, calendars (promotional or purchased), notebooks and daily planners, promotional material, directory, catalogue or paper used for copying, writing or any other general use.

Hard or soft cover books and hardcover periodicals are not considered paper products.

For the purpose of reporting annual supply data under the Blue Box Regulation, the weight of newspaper must be reported in the appropriate material categories. For example, newsprint must be reported in the ‘paper’ category, while any protective plastic wrapping must be reported as ‘flexible plastic’.

Then, producers will be asked to indicate what percentage of their total Blue Box material supply was newspaper, including any protective wrapping and supplemental advertisements and inserts, in that calendar year.

See our FAQs: “What is a newspaper?” and “Who is a newspaper producer?”

Any donated or re-supplied paper products or other Blue Box materials that are supplied to consumers through a reuse store or upcycling event should not be included in your supply report.

Blue Box materials (i.e., products and packaging made of metal, glass, paper, flexible plastic, rigid plastic, and beverage containers) are typically collected directly from residences through the provincial Blue Box Program. RPRA’s Where to Recycle map displays public locations for recycling materials that don’t belong in your Blue Box (e.g., batteries, electronics, household hazardous waste, lighting and tires).

For more information on recycling Blue Box materials, visit Circular Materials’ website. Circular Materials is the administrator of Ontario’s Blue Box collection system.

Under the Blue Box Regulation, there are three types of exemptions that apply to producers:

1. Based on a producer’s gross annual revenue,
2. based on the weight of Blue Box materials supplied into Ontario, and
3. for producers of newspaper

1. Any producer whose gross annual Ontario revenue from products and services is less than $2,000,000 is exempt from all producer requirements under the regulation. In the case where the producer is a franchisor, it is the gross annual revenue of the system that is used to determine if an exemption applies.

Any producer who meets the exemption must keep any records that demonstrate its gross annual Ontario revenue is less than $2,000,000 in a paper or electronic format that can be examined or accessed in Ontario for a period of five years from the date of creation.

See our FAQs to understand what revenues municipalities and registered charities should consider when determining whether or not they are an exempt producer.

2. A producer who is above the revenue-based exemption level may still be exempt from performance requirements (collection, management and promotion and education) if their supply weight is below the exemption levels outlined in the table below.

If a producer’s annual revenue is more than $2,000,000 and supply weight in all material categories is less than the tonnage exemption threshold, the producer is required to register and report.

If a producer’s annual revenue is more than $2,000,000 and supply weight in at least one material category is above the tonnage exemption threshold, the producer is required to meet all obligations (registration, reporting, collection, management, and promotion and education). However, producers are only required to meet their minimum management requirement in material categories where they are above the exemption level.

3. As outlined in the amended Blue Box Regulation (released April 19, 2022), producers of newspapers may be exempt from collection, management, and promotion and education requirements. For the purposes of this exemption, “newspapers” includes newspapers and any protective wrapping and any supplemental advertisements and inserts that are provided along with the newspapers.

For a producer to qualify for this exemption, newspapers must account for more than 70% of their total weight of Blue Box materials supplied to consumers in Ontario in a calendar year. If exempt, the producer is not required to meet collection, management, and promotion and education requirements for all Blue Box materials they supply in Ontario in the following two calendar years.

A producer whose newspaper supply accounts for 70% or less of their total weight of Blue Box materials is subject to collection, management, and promotion and education requirements for all Blue Box materials they supply in Ontario.

For most producers and for all municipalities, little has changed:

1. Rule creators and the rule creation process, including the allocation table, have been removed. Instead, each producer is responsible for providing Blue Box collection to every eligible source in Ontario and creating a province-wide system for collection.
2. Producer Responsibility Organizations (PROs) are now required to submit a report to RPRA on how they will operate the Blue Box system on behalf of producers.
3. Newspaper producers whose newspaper supply accounts for more than 70% of their total Blue Box supply to consumers in Ontario are exempt from collection, management, and promotion and education requirements.

The amendments do not change or impact:

• Producer registration or 2020 supply data reporting to RPRA
• Most producers’ 2021 supply data reporting to RPRA
• The materials collected in the Blue Box system
• The communities that receive collection or the collection requirements
• The transition schedule and its timelines

For the purposes of the Blue Box Regulation, a beverage container is a container that:

1. Contains a ready-to-drink beverage product,
   • “Ready-to-drink” means a beverage packaged by the manufacturer for immediate consumption that does not require any preparation. A ready-to-drink beverage is intended to be consumed as purchased and does not require a dispensing device to be consumed.
   • “Beverage” means a consumable liquid for enjoyment or hydration. It does not include an “alcoholic beverage”, or “non-alcoholic beer, wine or spirits” as defined in O. Reg. 391/21.
2. Is made from metal, glass, paper or rigid plastic, or any combination of these materials, and
   • If a beverage container is made only of flexible plastic, it would be obligated as a Blue Box material but would be reported under the material category “Flexible Plastic” rather than the “Beverage Container” material category. The Blue Box Regulation defines flexible plastic as unmoulded plastic. For more information on reporting of packaging and beverage containers that consist of multiple materials, please see the “Component Threshold Rule” in the Blue Box Verification and Audit Procedure Registry Procedure.
3. Is sealed by its manufacturer.
   • A cup provided to a consumer in a restaurant filled with fountain pop is not sealed by the manufacturer and is therefore not considered a beverage container. However, the cup (including the lid and straw) would still be obligated as a Blue Box material in the paper and/or plastic material categories.

For greater clarity, the Registrar does not consider the packaging from the following product types to be a beverage container:

• Infant formula
• Meal replacements, nutritional supplements or dietary supplements
• Regulated health products
• Concentrated beverages intended to be mixed or diluted before consumption, such as frozen juices, cocktail mixers, extracts and flavour enhancers
• Liquids that are not intended to be consumed as purchased such as soup, syrups, cream and other beverage additives, whipping cream, buttermilk, broth
• Beverage containers made of flexible plastics such as milk bags (these are still to be reported as flexible plastics)

Milk products and substitutes (e.g., soy beverage, almond beverage, a rigid plastic container of milk, drinkable yogurt) are beverage containers provided they are packaged in a container as defined above.

A producer’s management requirement is how much Blue Box material they must ensure is collected and processed into recovered resources each year. Management requirements are calculated based on what they supplied into Ontario one year prior and the resource recovery percentage as set in the regulation. A producer’s management requirement is calculated separately for each Blue Box material category (beverage container, glass, flexible plastic, rigid plastic, metal and paper).

Some producer are exempt from having a management requirement based on their supply data, for more information on exemptions see the FAQ Are there exemptions for Blue Box producers? A producer that does not have a management requirement does not have any collection, management or promotion and education obligations.

A producer with a management requirement must also provide collection and promotion and education services in Ontario. Most producers will contract the services of a producer responsibility organization (PRO) to meet their collection, management and promotion and education obligations.

To view your management requirement(s), log into your registry account, download a copy of your Blue Box Supply Report and review the section with your minimum management requirements. Management requirement for a given year are determine by supply data from two years prior. For example, 2023 management requirements were based on 2021 supply data (submitted in producers’ 2022 Supply Report).

Unsure if you are a Blue Box producer? See our FAQs Am I a producer of Blue Box product packaging? And Am I a producer of paper products and packaging-like products?

Yes, reusable bags made from Blue Box materials ( e.g. plastic, paper) and used as convenience packaging are obligated under the Blue Box Regulation and must be reported annually by producers in their supply report.

Convenience packaging refers to material that is provided with a product for consumers to handle or transport that product, in addition to the product’s primary packaging. This includes items such as bags and boxes that are supplied to consumers at check out.

For additional clarity:

• Reusable bags made primarily from plastic, paper, or any other Blue Box material, or a combination of these materials, are obligated. Reusable bags made from textile fibres such as cotton, hemp, bamboo, etc., are not obligated.
• Recycled content of the material has no impact on whether a reusable bag is obligated. For example, reusable bags containing post-consumer recycled plastic content are obligated.
• A reusable bag is obligated regardless of whether it is supplied to the consumer for free or at a cost. Examples include bags supplied at checkout to consumers at retail locations.

If you haven’t been reporting reusable bags as part of your annual supply data, please contact the Compliance Team immediately at registry@rpra.ca.

Also see our FAQ: ‘What do I do if I misreported my supply data?’

The following are the types of Blue Box Materials obligated under the Blue Box Regulation:

• Blue box packaging (primary, transport, convenience, service accessories, ancillary elements)
• Paper products
• Packaging-like products

Producers are required to provide the following information when registering with RPRA:

• Contact information
• PRO information (if a PRO has been retained at time of reporting), including what services they have retained a PRO for
• Their 2020 supply data in each of the seven material categories– beverage container, glass material, flexible plastic, metal material, paper material, and certified compostable products and packaging material – as well as any deductions.

Please note that this information must be submitted to RPRA directly.

See our FAQ to understand “What deductions are available to producers under the Blue Box Regulation?”

Starting in 2022, producers are required to report their supply data annually to RPRA.

Each year, producers will need to provide the previous years’ supply data in each of the seven material categories – beverage container, glass material, flexible plastic, rigid plastic, metal material, paper material, and certified compostable products and packaging material – as well as any deductions.

See our FAQ to understand “What deductions are available to producers under the Blue Box Regulation?”

You are a Blue Box processor if you process Blue Box material that was supplied to a consumer in Ontario for the purposes of resource recovery.

For the purpose of resource recovery, processing includes, and is not limited to:

• Sorting
• Baling
• Paper and cardboard shredding
• Plastic reprocessing, which includes grinding, washing, pelletizing, compounding, etc.
• Crushed glass reprocessing
• Aluminum and steel reprocessing

See our FAQs to understand “Who is a consumer under the Blue Box Regulation”.

In the Blue Box Regulation, certified compostable products and packaging is defined as material that:

• is only capable of being processed by composting, anaerobic digestion or other processes that result in decomposition by bacteria or other living organisms, and
• is certified compostable by an international, national, or industry standard that is listed in this procedure.

All certified compostable products and packaging reported by producers must be certified under one of the following standards:

• CAN/BNQ 0017-088: Specifications for Compostable Plastics
• ISO 17088: Specifications for compostable plastics
• ASTM D6400: Standard Specification for Labeling of Plastics Designed to be Aerobically Composted in Municipal or Industrial Facilities
• ASTM D6868: Standard Specification for Labeling of End Items that Incorporate Plastics and Polymers as Coatings or Additives with Paper and Other Substrates Designed to be Aerobically Composted in Municipal or Industrial Facilities
• EN 13432: Requirements for packaging recoverable through composting and biodegradation – Test scheme and evaluation criteria for the final acceptance of packaging

RPRA will accept a report that substantiates the total Blue Box material weight deductions based on the customer’s recorded response to “Will you eat in or take out?” for all locations. Reports must be retained either in electronic or paper format for five years and be provided upon request for verification by RPRA.

Yes, cheques are an obligated material and should be reported under the paper material category. If you have questions regarding how to determine whether you are the brand holder and are obligated to report the supply of cheques, please reach out to the Compliance & Registry team at registry@rpra.ca.

Public sector institutions, such as colleges and universities, are suppliers of Blue Box materials to consumers in Ontario. They supply Blue Box materials to consumers on-site (e.g., food service packaging, unprinted paper in photocopiers, etc.) and off-site (e.g., mailings).

For the purposes of supply reporting, colleges, universities, and other public sector institutions must determine the total amount of Blue Box material they supply to consumers in Ontario. One way to gather this data is by canvassing internal departments to obtain annual weights of Blue Box materials supplied to consumers on-site and off-site.

Also see:
FAQ: What deductions are available to producers under the Blue Box Regulation?
Compliance Bulletin: What Blue Box materials need to be reported?

Producers are not required to collect and manage their own branded products and materials. Instead, a producer is expected to collect and manage a portion of similar materials in Ontario. The portion of material that a producer collects and manages is known as their minimum management requirement. A minimum management requirement, which is set based on calculations outlined in the applicable Regulation, is the weight of the products or packaging that the producer must ensure is collected and managed. The calculated amount is proportionate to the weight of materials that producer supplied into the province.

For example, a producer who supplied laptops into Ontario does not need to collect and manage their own branded laptops. Instead, they must ensure that they collect and manage an equivalent weight of information technology, telecommunications, and audio-visual equipment (ITT/AV) materials.

Similarly, a producer who supplied cardboard boxes into Ontario does not need to collect and manage those exact cardboard boxes. Rather, they need to ensure that an equivalent weight of paper is collected and managed.

Almost all producers will work with producer responsibility organizations (PROs) for the purposes of meeting their obligations to collect and manage materials. PROs establish collection and management systems across Ontario for different material types. A producer can meet their obligations to collect and manage materials by entering into a contract with a PRO to provide these services on their behalf.

Where a municipality distributes documents on behalf of another brand holder, the municipality is not obligated to report the paper in its supply. That obligation falls to the brand holder.

For example: A municipality may distribute documents issued by the provincial government (such as marriage licences and court documents) which are usually branded with the provincial agency or ministerial logos and names. In these cases, the provincial government would be the brand holder responsible for reporting these materials in their annual supply data report.

Please see FAQ “Who is a brand holder?” for more information.