Hello and thank you, Madam Chair.

Hello, ladies and gentlemen of the committee.

First, I would like to thank the committee for this invitation to testify on a subject as important and complex as plastics recycling.

Éco Entreprises Québec, or EEQ, is a private, non-profit organization that, since 2005, has represented producers who market packaged products, containers and printed materials in Quebec. Under the principle of extended producer responsibility, or EPR, producers are responsible for developing, implementing and financing the province's recycling system.

In 2022, EEQ was appointed as the designated EPR management organization in Quebec, becoming the leader in the modernization of curbside recycling. As a result, as of January 1, 2025, EEQ will manage the collection, transport, sorting and sale of recyclable materials for the entire province. This new role puts us in a prime position to take a systemic view of issues around plastics, and ensure their sound management at the end of their life cycle.

Our approach to plastics is threefold. Firstly, because of the ambitious recycling targets set by Quebec's regulation, one of the main benefits of EPR is to encourage investment in infrastructure. Unfortunately, in recent years, sorting centre operators have often set aside major investments, aiming instead to sort at a lower cost, even if it means having to export or landfill recyclables such as plastics. As the manager of EPR in Quebec, EEQ is working to catch up with this major technological lag by demanding better performance from sorting centre operators, giving them the means to achieve these ambitious targets, but also by building new high-performance, innovative sorting centres, like the one in Montreal East, which will start operations on January 2, 2025.

In addition, as Mr. Langdon noted, with our colleagues at RecycleBC and Circular Materials, we launched a Request for Expressions of Interest for the Processing of Plastic Packaging, also knows as REOI, in the spring of 2024, with the aim of obtaining information on equipment manufacturers and plastic recyclers in Canada and elsewhere who wish to play an active part in modernizing the system. The information-gathering period is now over and projects are now being analyzed for implementation in 2025.

Secondly, we are also well aware that downstream changes in the system must be accompanied by changes upstream. That's why EEQ has implemented numerous eco-design and eco-modulation initiatives and programs over the past 20 years. In fact, we have a dedicated in-house team that supports producers in changing their packaging and containers for alternatives that are less disruptive to the recycling system. Notably, since 2021, several hundred thousand dollars have been awarded to producers via the Ecodesign Incentive Bonus, which rewards good practices such as source reduction, reuse, local procurement, recyclability and the integration of recycled content. In the coming weeks, we will proudly launch our Ecodesign and Recyclability Guidelines, which will guide producers towards more responsible packaging choices. These guidelines are based on global best practices, while taking into account the on-the-ground reality of recycling in Quebec.

Regarding plastics more specifically, we have also introduced eco-modulation measures in 2024 for certain categories in our tariffs, namely maluses on PVC and on biodegradable and compostable plastics. While the latter are often seen as a solution to certain plastics-related issues, such as ocean pollution, biodegradable and compostable plastics pose a number of challenges for the recycling system. Indeed, given that the vast majority of composting facilities in Quebec and the rest of the country cannot adequately process this packaging, it is often refused in residential compost bins. They end up either in the trash, where their value is lost, or in recycling, where they contaminate plastic bales and, subsequently, post-consumer resins. It is therefore important to consider the indirect effects of the increase in such products.

Finally, EEQ is proud to be a founding member of the Circular Plastics Taskforce, or CPT, whose mission is to create a circular economy for all post-consumer plastics in Canada. Since its founding in 2020, the CPT has carried out a number of research and pilot projects on several important plastics-related issues, such as traceability, food grade, flexible plastics and thermoformed PET. The deliverables of these projects, such as research reports and white papers, have become reference tools within the plastics industry worldwide, giving the Canadian leaders involved an international showcase. We'd also like to thank Environment and Climate Change Canada for the financial support it has provided to the CPT in the past, and hopefully in the future.

In conclusion, there is definite momentum in Canada around the circular economy of plastics, notably due to the multiplication of provincial extended producer responsibility initiatives. Although the arrival of EPR in the majority of Canadian provinces will lead to a series of investments in infrastructure and new technologies, this will not be enough to bring the whole system to scale. To encourage plastics circularity and accelerate the movement already under way, the federal government therefore has an important role to play in encouraging and derisking private investment in plastics recycling, from manufacturing to sorting centres and recyclers. Change on this scale will only happen if we all work together.

Thank you again for your invitation.

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