Dairy industry product stewardship across Canada
During the past decade there has been considerable development around beverage container stewardship. Milk packaging has traditionally been considered sacrosanct in part because it is a so-called “basis staple” and therefore should not carry any additional costs, including packaging stewardship costs.
More recently, however, milk packaging has been pulled into the stewardship arena. In provinces such as Alberta, Saskatchewan and Nova Scotia where there was a threat that milk containers would be included in the existing provincial deposit-return system industry voluntarily entered into various stewardship agreements. By summer 2003 the Ontario dairy industry will be required to subsidize municipal blue box programs collecting milk and dairy product packaging. The following provides an update on the changing landscape of dairy packaging stewardship in Canada.
