On August 15, 2019, the Minister of the Environment, Conservation and Parks issued direction to RPRA and Stewardship Ontario to begin transitioning Ontario’s legacy Blue Box Program to the new producer responsibility regulatory framework outlined in the Resource Recovery and Circular Economy Act, 2016 (RRCEA) and its associated regulations.
This means that the legacy program, which was funded approximately 50% by municipalities and 50% by producers (or stewards) and fully operated by municipalities, has been replaced by a system that is 100% funded and fully operated by producers.
On June 3, 2021, the Government of Ontario released the Blue Box Regulation under the RRCEA outlining requirements for producers to establish and operate the new Blue Box Program. Visit our Blue Box Program Operated by Producers page for information about the producer funded and operated program, including what materials are obligated, and regulatory requirements for specific roles (e.g. producer, PRO, processor, municipality, First Nation community).
The regulation set the transition period between July 1, 2023, and December 31, 2025. During this time, communities participating in the legacy program transitioned to the new program according to the Blue Box Transition Schedule.
Wind-up of legacy Blue Box operations
Under the Waste Diversion Transition Act, 2016 (WDTA), RPRA was responsible for overseeing the orderly wind up of legacy waste diversion programs and the industry funding organizations responsible for managing those programs, including the legacy Blue Box Program and Stewardship Ontario.
This also included overseeing the wind up of the Continuous Improvement Fund (CIF), which was a partnership under the legacy Blue Box Program between the Association of Municipalities of Ontario, the City of Toronto, Stewardship Ontario and RPRA with a mandate to undertake research and develop programs to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of municipal Blue Box programs. CIF ceased operations at the end of 2024. Visit our CIF page to learn more.
For questions about the end of Stewardship Ontario’s operations, refunds for 2025 steward fees, or upcoming MFAM payments, please contact Stewardship Ontario at [email protected].