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Blue Box Processors

Read the Registrar’s update on regulatory requirements for Blue Box processors during the transition here.

Questions about the Blue Box Program?

We have answers! Read our Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) here.

A processor is a person who processes Blue Box material that was supplied to a consumer in Ontario for the purposes of resource recovery.

Under the Blue Box Regulation, processors work with producers (or producer responsibility organizations operating on their behalf), who are required to establish and operate a collection and management system for Blue Box materials.

For the purposes of resource recovery, processing includes but is not limited to:

  • Sorting
  • Bailing paper and cardboard shredding
  • Plastic reprocessing including grinding, washing, pelletizing, compounding, etc.
  • Crushed glass reprocessing
  • Aluminum and steel reprocessing

What are my obligations under the Blue Box Regulation?

Under the Blue Box Regulation, processors who wish to participate in the producer-run Blue Box System must register with RPRA. Producers and PROs can only work with registered processors.

All processors that process Blue Box materials supplied to consumers in Ontario for personal, family or household use, as well as processors that process beverage containers supplied to consumers in Ontario for personal, family, household or business use, must register with RPRA through the online registry (the Registry).

The list of registered processors can be viewed here.

Click the headings below to learn more about your obligations as a Blue Box processor.

If you are a processor under the Blue Box Regulation, you are required to create an account in RPRA’s Registry.

Register

Have questions about registration? View the following resources:

Beginning in 2024, processors are required to complete an annual performance report to provide information about their recovery and management activities in the previous calendar year.

Registered processors will need to log into their registry account each year and report the following information:

  1. Blue Box material collected from residential collection:
    • Weight of materials received by the processor
    • Weight of recovered and reused materials by type (glass, flexible and rigid plastic, beverage containers, etc.)
  2. Blue Box material collected from non-residential collection:
    • Weight of materials reused and recovered
    • Weight of materials recovered
    • Processed materials sent for disposal
  3. Processing methods used (e.g. smelting, shredding)
  4. Products and packaging made from recycled materials

Important Dates

RegistrantRequirementDeadline
New processorsRegister with RPRAJanuary 31 of the calendar year after Blue Box materials are first processed
Processors that have not registeredRegister with RPRAAs soon as possible
ProcessorsSubmit an annual performance report to provide information on their recovery and management activities in 2023

See our interim guidance for processors during transition years (2023-2025)		May 31, 2024
Unless otherwise stated, all information must be submitted through RPRA’s registry.

Information on Stewardship Ontario’s Blue Box Program

Stewardship Ontario will continue to operate the Blue Box Program on behalf of stewards until December 31, 2025, once all municipalities and First Nation communities have transitioned their programs to the new framework. Visit Stewardship Ontario’s website for more information on the transition of the current program, and direct any operational inquiries to: werecycle@stewardshipontario.ca.

For further information about the current program operated by Stewardship Ontario, including the Blue Box Program Plan and other program documents, the Blue Box Steward Funding Obligation, the Municipal Funding Allocation Model (MFAM), the InKind Advertising Program and Datacall, visit our Blue Box Program page.