Pioneering Progress: Ryse Solutions & Ontario's Evolving Blue Box Landscape

September 11, 2023

Since 1981, the Blue Box program has been a cornerstone of Ontario's commitment to environmental responsibility. Now, with a renewed focus on maximizing recycling, resource recovery, and reducing waste sent to landfills, the program is entering a new and exciting phase of innovation and optimization.  

As of July 1, 2023, municipalities and First Nation communities started transitioning their Blue Box programs to a new framework in which producers are fully accountable and financially responsible for collecting and recycling their products, paper, and packaging after consumers discard them. The compliance and consultancy division of Emterra Group - Ryse Solutions - has taken up the mantle of playing a role in this transformation as a Producer Responsibility Organization (PRO). Ryse Solutions Ontario provides producers with the choice of our expertise in designing comprehensive recycling solutions that are efficient, scalable, and tailored to the unique needs of Ontario's diverse regions while meeting the regulatory management targets. The objective of Ryse Solutions is to provide customers with better outcomes, lower prices, and better customer experiences through competitive innovation, scale, and focus.  

Our involvement in the Blue Box program reflects somewhat of a full circle moment. When Emmie Leung, Founder and CEO of Emterra Group, first began her career, she was collecting cardboard from back alleys and instigated the first ever ‘blue bag’ program in British Columbia - a system that continues to be used in some municipalities throughout Canada today. Now, she leads and oversees teams across the province of Ontario that are playing a key role in this monumental shift to producer responsibility. 

As Ontario’s first multi-material PRO, the Ryse Solutions team has had first-hand experience in launching compliance solutions for businesses under all five extended producer responsibility (EPR) regulations. We are proud to leverage our experience in simplifying the compliance process for our clients. Together with producers, local communities, industry stakeholders, and government agencies, we are charting a course toward a circular economy where waste becomes a valuable resource, and circularity becomes the norm.    
 

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