EPSC believes that Provincial electronics stewardship programs should be based on the following guiding principles:
- Level playing field: All obligated producers participate in an approved stewardship program to maintain a level competitive playing field.
- Harmonization: To the greatest extent possible, harmonize with other electronics stewardship programs to achieve economies of scale.
- Appropriate Standards: All recyclers used by an electronics stewardship program must be audited to the EPSC recycling standard – a standard that has been employed in every other jurisdiction in Canada that maintains an end-of-life electronics stewardship program.
- Environmental improvement: Use the program’s influence on the market to drive environmental improvements such as proper reuse, responsible recycling, and enhanced resource recovery.
- No cross-subsidization: Each product category are assigned only the costs of managing those products within that category.
- Operational efficiencies: Drive operational efficiencies by leveraging competitive markets for services and streamlining administrative and governance processes to ensure financial resources are used effectively and efficiently.
- Collective or Individual Responses: the program should allow the flexibility for either an industry collective response or individual company responses.
EPSC believes that the path to success for programs of this nature has been:
- Non-prescriptive regulation: Regulation is by definition difficult to change. A non-prescriptive approach allows greater flexibility.
- Industry lead: Industry should take the lead on the design and development of the program including product lists and definitions and timings.
- A phased approach: to timings and product lists.
- Leveraging existing infrastructure
- Funding flexibility: Allowing industry to determine the applicable financing mechanism for each regulated product to ensure the simple and harmonized management of the program.