A producer responsibility organization, or PRO, is a business established to contract with producers to provide collection, management and administrative services to help producers meet their regulatory obligations under the Blue Box Regulation, including:
- Representing a producer for the purposes of the creation of the rules
- Arranging, establishing or operating a collection or management system
- Arranging, establishing or operating promotion and education system
- Preparing and submitting reports
A processor retained by a producer solely for the purposes of processing Blue Box material is not a PRO.
PROs operate in a competitive market and producers can choose the PRO (or PROs) they want to work with. The terms and conditions of each contract with a PRO may vary.
What is a rule creator?
Rule creators are responsible for developing a set of rules that will govern how producers are assigned collection services in the allocation table, and how the allocation table is created, maintained and updated. The allocation table will outline the Blue Box collection system, ensuring that materials are collected from all eligible communities (i.e., communities outside of the Far North) across the province.
Rule creators are PROs who:
- have entered into representation agreements with one or more producers of Blue Box material supplied to consumers in Ontario in 2020
- have registered with the Authority as a rule creator before November 1, 2021
- represent one or more producers that in aggregate supplied at least 20,000 tonnes of Blue Box material to consumers in Ontario in 2020.
Producers that are represented by a PRO are also required to register their representation agreement for the purposes of rule creation.
To learn more about rule creators and the rule creation process, review the information in this presentation: What is a rule creator?
Part III of the Blue Box Regulation further outlines the rule creation and allocation table making process.
Signing up with a PRO
The following PROs are registered with the Authority.
Of the list of registered PROs, three have qualified as rule creators (confirmed as of November 1, 2021):
- Circular Materials
- Resource Recovery Alliance
- Ryse Solutions Ontario Inc.
Click the PRO’s name for their contact information.
Important considerations about working with PROs:
- Producers are not required to sign up with a PRO. It is a business decision if a producer chooses to work with a PRO, and a producer can choose to meet their obligations without a PRO.
- Producers can have a different PRO for the purposes of rule creation and providing collection/management services, and they can enter contracts for each at different times.
How to register as a PRO
PROs are required to register with the Authority within 30 days of being retained by a producer. To assist Blue Box producers in identifying the PROs they want to represent them for the rule creation process and to meet their collection and management requirements, PROs are encouraged to register with the Authority as soon as possible.
PROs who enter into representation agreements with producers for the purpose of rule creation must also register with the Authority as a rule creator before November 1, 2021.
If you are interested in registering as a Blue Box PRO or rule creator, contact our Compliance and Registry Team at 833-600-0530 or registry@rpra.ca.