Electronics recycling program to be revenue neutral, says N.W.T. gov't

The Northwest Territories government recently launched a territory-wide electronics recycling program, but retailers and the public have questions about the new fees being added to purchases.

The new fees apply to computers and tablets, monitors, printers, and televisions, among other devices. 

Diep Duong, manager of waste reduction and management for the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, spoke with CBC.

This interview has been edited and condensed.

Q. Why do consumers not get any money back when they drop off the electronics at a depot?

There are three reasons mainly. The first one is that if we were to have that, the fees would have to be higher for consumers. We didn't want to make it any higher than it had to be. The second is that this is a program model that exists everywhere else in Canada. There aren't any refunds for electronics across Canada.

The third reason is we're trying to harmonize our program as much as possible with the rest of Canada. If we were to add a refundable deposit on electronics, that would make industry associations or groups that have to run these programs or have to be part of the program, do something that they don't already do in other jurisdictions.

Q. Retailers are concerned about the rollout and say promotional material came out late, just before the launch Feb. 1.

During the development of the electronics recycling program, we consulted with everybody for about the last six years, and we've done so in about five different ways, five different times. So to say that the public knows nothing about the program is a little surprising to me because I know we started consulting in 2008. We did it again in 2012, 2014, a couple of times in 2015, and then we had a public document that was on our website and advertised through a few places for quite a while in the winter of 2015. When we rolled out the program our advertising campaign came out the last week of January, just because now we have the information and we're rolling it out to all the public.

Q. The website says the thinking is to shift the cost of this program away from general taxpayers — everybody is forced to pay for it — to those buying electronics?

That's correct, that's how the model works in most other places. Right now the cost of managing landfills, for example, is placed on municipalities. They don't have the money and they don't have the resources to manage it. So right now it's based on if you live in a community, you pay taxes that go toward paying for x, y and z. That shift from making the general taxpayer pay for it to consumers and users is a generally accepted principle for waste management.

Q. Why are N.W.T. fees so steep in comparison to the next closest jurisdiction, Alberta?

The fees placed on these products are based on what it costs to recycle the products themselves. So, a display device that's greater than 45 inches, it costs more to ship, it costs more to do a lot of it compared to a smaller item and that's why the fee is higher. If you compare that to some of the other jurisdictions like Ontario, their [fee for] display devices greater than 45 inches is $39.50. [In N.W.T. the fee is $40] So we're very comparable to, say, Ontario. And their population is huge compared to ours.

Alberta's fees are much lower but their program is the oldest in the country and they built up a very healthy reserve and they're trying to draw it down. So for us to compare ourselves to Alberta, it's just not feasible. There's not much that we can do about it. When they lowered their fees in 2012, the intent was for their fees to go up again. Right now Alberta fees are only about 40 per cent of what it costs for them to run their program and once they draw down that surplus they will eventually increase their fees again. For us to compare ourselves to Alberta at this point is pretty difficult.

Q. Are you doing this program to make money for the environment fund?

Absolutely not. We're estimating a deficit in the program between $60,000 and $150,000 and that's going to be covered off by any surplus that we have in the environment fund. In other programs across the country, the program is paying for all of the expenses of the program. Our program, the model that we have, is already running at a deficit so that we can keep consumer prices as low as possible. The program is intended to be revenue neutral so that we keep consumer fees as low as possible but at the same time have enough money in the fund to pay for all the expenses.

Q. Does ENR feel like it's catching up on this issue?

Right now the only jurisdiction that doesn't have electronics recycling coming up, or even on the radar that I know of, is Nunavut. Even the Yukon is working on it. And the last province is New Brunswick and they've already announced they're going to be implementing something pretty soon. So if you look at the bigger picture, electronics recycling is important to Canadians overall, it's important to the Northwest Territories residents. Basically it's the right thing to do in order to protect the environment.