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Modernized Selective Collection

Proposed amendments to the By-law concerning a selective collection system for certain residual materials
Public consultation underway (October 2 to November 15, 2024) (French)

Objective of the modernization of selective collection

The extended producer responsibility (EPR) approach facilitates the establishment of the necessary conditions for rethinking Québec’s selective collection system in a circular logic, which will foster the recovery and reclamation of containers, packaging, and printed matter. Producers are entirely responsible for the system and will have the necessary powers to optimize operations throughout the value chain; better control costs; and ensure that the residual materials obtained from Materials Recovery Facilities (MRF) satisfy local and neighbouring market needs. The regulation will also act as a lever to encourage producers to foster the eco-design of their products, in particular by ensuring their compatibility with the modernized selective collection system, as well as their recyclability and reclamation outcomes.

The Regulation, 2023 regulatory amendments, and decree

The Regulation respecting a system of selective collection of certain residual materialsCet hyperlien s'ouvrira dans une nouvelle fenêtre. assigns responsibility for developing, implementing, and funding a modernized selective collection system to producers that market or distribute containers, packaging, and printed matter in Québec. System management is assigned to a body designated by RECYC-QUÉBEC to represent producers.

2023 regulatory amendments

Amendments to the RegulationCet hyperlien s'ouvrira dans une nouvelle fenêtre. were introduced in August 2023, following a public consultation (French, PDF, 417 ko)Cet hyperlien s'ouvrira dans une nouvelle fenêtre. that ran from July 19 to August 3, 2023. The major amendments were as follows:

  • Extension of the deadline for the negotiation of certain contracts between the Designated Management Body (DMB) and municipal organizations and Indigenous communities for the provision of local services;
  • Continuation of the existing rules regarding the materials and sectors that must be accepted and serviced, for municipal collections only;
  • Harmonization of the definition of “person referred to” with that of other regulations by including trademark owners that are domiciled or have an establishment in Québec;
  • Parameters for the implementation of mandatory recovery plans when one or more prescribed performance rates are not met have been improved, and aligned with the deposit-refund regulationCet hyperlien s'ouvrira dans une nouvelle fenêtre. and the Regulation respecting the recovery and reclamation of products by enterprisesCet hyperlien s'ouvrira dans une nouvelle fenêtre.;
  • Certain containers and packaging have been excluded;
  • Contract negotiation sequences, between the DMB and municipal organizations and Indigenous communities for the provision of local services have been clarified;
  • Mandatory participation in the system set up by the DMB by industries, businesses and institutions as soon as they are served by it.

The summary factsheet (French) concerning the regulation respecting selective collection explains in simple language the amendments adopted in 2023 and their objectives.

Decree concerning the postponement of the December 31, 2024, date for contracts for the provision of local services

On December 20, 2023, the Conseil exécutif issued the decree concerning the postponement of the December 31, 2024, date given in sections 17 and 18 of the Act to amend mainly the Environment Quality Act with respect to deposits and selective collection. This decree is not intended to postpone the deployment of the modernized selective collection system, but rather to spread out the transition to this new system over a longer period for municipal contracts involving the collection and transportation of certain residual materials. This postponement was necessary given, among others, the time concerns raised by certain municipal bodies regarding the transition. The date chosen for this postponement is December 31, 2025.

The information capsule on the decree presents all the relevant information on this decree and its implications for the stakeholders concerned.

Information capsule: Decree concerning the postponement of the December 31, 2024, date for certain selective collection contracts (French, Youtube)Cet hyperlien s'ouvrira dans une nouvelle fenêtre.

Rollout of selective collection

Rollout of the modernized selective collection system (French, PDF, 133 KB)This hyperlink will open in a new window.

Key changes stemming from the reform of selective collection

  • Producers that market, sell or otherwise distribute target products in Québec are obliged to develop, implement, and fund a modernized selective collection system. As such, they are fully responsible for the system and required to ensure the management of residual materials throughout the value chain up to the end of the reclamation process;
  • New products will be added to the existing compensation scheme: single-use containers, packaging, and printed matter, including products such as straws and utensils used to prepare or consume food products; printed matter with less than five years of useful life such as travel, wine, or automobile guides; school textbooks, and so on, and containers and packaging such as hooks and hangers used for product support or display;
  • Managers of transactional websites for products such as single-use containers, packaging and printed matter covered by the Regulation but acquired from outside Québec by an individual for personal use will also fall within the purview of the Regulation;
  • The mandate of the Management Body (DMB) selected by RECYC-QUÉBEC, Éco Entreprises Québec, is to take responsibility for developing, implementing and providing financial support for a modernized selective collection system for and on behalf of the target producers. Éco Entreprises QuébecCet hyperlien s'ouvrira dans une nouvelle fenêtre. must, in particular:
    • Approach municipal bodies and Indigenous communities to sign contracts for the provision of local services (collection, transport and citizen services) for residential buildings with fewer than nine dwellings;
    • Ensure management of residual materials and sign sorting, packaging, and reclamation contracts with services providers that are capable of achieving the DMB’s requirement which will enable it to achieve the prescribed performance outcomes;
    • Achieve recovery and overall and local reclamation outcomes and report annually on them; if the prescribed rates are not met, the DMB will be obliged to submit, fund, and implement a remediation plan that would achieve these outcomes within two full years following the filing of such a plan.
  • The obligation to accept certain residual materials in the selective collection system will come into force gradually, such that within nine years of the Regulation coming into force, the system is required to accept all targeted residual materials;
  • The recovery obligation will be gradually implemented over a period of eight years for all residential sectors, including multi-unit, institutional, commercial, and industrial buildings, and outdoor public places in municipalities with more than 25,000 inhabitants throughout Québec, including isolated and remote territories;
  • The owners and managers of multi-unit buildings; condominium associations; and industrial-commercial-institutional buildings will have to participate in the system and, in certain cases, make collection bins for system-targeted residual materials available to their clienteles and/or residents;
  • The DMB must pay an annual amount to the Fonds de protection de l’environnement et du domaine hydrique de l’État (FPEDHE) (French), to take into account compostable or degradable containers and packaging not recovered by the system;
  • The two DMBs: the Association québécoise de récupération des contenants de boissons and Éco Entreprises Québec (respectively representing producers in the modernized deposit-refund and selective collection systems) must sign an agreement linking the systems regarding the operational and financial arrangements pertaining to the management of products targeted by one system but found in the other.

Targeted residual materials

Containers, packaging, and printed matter including newspapers and travel, wine, or automobile guides, school textbooks, and so on, with a useful life of less than five years; single-use products such as straws and utensils intended for the preparation or consumption of food products, and containers and packaging items such as hooks and hangers used to support or display products, are all targeted.

Designation of the management body representing producers

Producers are responsible for developing, implementing, and funding the modernized selective collection system. On October 24, 2022, RECYC-QUÉBEC selected Éco Entreprises Québec as the Designated Management Body to represent target producers in respect of their obligation to develop, implement and provide financial support for a modernized selective collection system for the next five years.

Transition to the modernized system and compensation scheme

The modernized selective collection system will gradually come into force by December 31, 2025. During the first part of this transitional period, the compensation scheme (French) will continue to apply but will gradually ease out as municipal selective collection contracts expire. The full abrogation of this scheme is slated for December 31, 2024. However, producers covered by the compensation scheme will have to pay compensation due to municipalities in 2025 in respect of net eligible costs incurred in 2024.

The compensation method will differ for the second part of this transitional period (from December 31, 2024, to December 31, 2025), given the abrogation of the compensation scheme on December 31, 2024. As such, starting in 2025, the terms and conditions for reimbursing the costs of municipal collection and transportation services for materials covered by this reform will have to be agreed between the DMB and the municipal bodies concerned.

The RegulationCet hyperlien s'ouvrira dans une nouvelle fenêtre. structuring the modernization of the selective collection system sets out the deadlines, terms, and conditions applicable to municipal collection, transport, sorting, and conditioning contracts that must end by December 31, 2024, and to those that will continue beyond December 31, 2024. Despite the postponement of the December 31, 2024, date set out in sections 17 and 18 of the Act to amend mainly the Environment Quality Act with respect to deposits and selective collectionThis hyperlink will open in a new window., these regulatory deadlines remain unchanged.

To lessen the impact of the transition, Regulation respecting compensation for municipal services provided to recover and reclaim residual materialsThis hyperlink will open in a new window. has been amended to include the compensation of supplementary costs created by selective collection contracts taking effect after December 31, 2022, subject to compliance with the conditions set out in the Regulation. This measure has been introduced because some municipal organizations are obliged to award contracts with shorter terms and potentially higher costs, given the maximum expiry dates for certain municipal selective collection contracts provided for in the Act.

For selective collection contracts that may extend beyond December 31, 2024, sections 20 to 22 of the Regulation stipulate the obligation for the DMB to sign a contract with the municipal body at issue—providing compensation to be paid to the management body beyond December 31, 2024,—or a contract to cancel and replace the earlier one. In the latter instance, the DMB will assume the expenses, penalties and/or other damages related to the cancellation and offer the municipal body at issue or any other municipal body, a contract covering the collection and transport of residual materials coming minimally from residential buildings with fewer than nine dwellings.

A summary sheet (French, PDF, 242 KB)This hyperlink will open in a new window. on the 2022 and 2023 amendments to the Regulation respecting compensation for municipal services provided to recover and reclaim residual materials is now available. It contains information in layman's terms regarding the compensation arrangements for 2024 and subsequent compensation, including compensation for additional costs for contracts of 24 months or less taking effect after December 31, 2022.

Results to be achieved by the producers

The designated management body (DMB) must achieve the recovery, reclamation and local reclamation outcomes by type of residual material, which will evolve over time. The achieved performance rates will be subject to government-audited, annual reporting.

In cases where a DMB fails to achieve the prescribed outcomes, it must submit a remediation plan to the Ministère de l’Environnement, de la Lutte contre les changements climatiques, de la Faune et des Parcs and to RECYC-QUÉBEC, and fund and implement it. It must also invest an amount stipulated by the Regulation to implement the measures prescribed in the plan to achieve the stated outcomes within two years.

The traceability of residual materials must be ensured up to their final destination so that they are considered in the calculation of the achieved performance outcomes, which will encourage local and neighbouring market solutions. The following are not deemed reclamation sites for the purposes of calculating the overall and local reclamation rates:

  • sites where residual materials are used to produce fuel, heat, or any other form of energy;
  • sites where residual materials are used as backfill or cover material on a landfill site or are used to develop such sites;
  • sites where residual materials are subject to biological treatment, except in certain territories.

For the purposes of calculating a local recovery rate, a maximum of 30% of the total weight of the residual materials sent for local reclamation can be reclaimed locally or elsewhere: Recovery and reclamation are deemed local if they occur in Québec, Ontario, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador, and in the states of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania.

Prescribed selective collection rates

Categories Recovery
(starting from 2027)		 Reclamation1
(from 2027 to 2029)		 Reclamation2
(starting from 2030)		 Local reclamation3
(starting from 2030)
Cardboard 85% + 5% after five years
Ultimately 90%		 75% 75% + 5% aux five years
Ultimately 85%		 90%
Printed matter, containers, and packaging made of fibres other than cardboard 80% + 5% after five years
Ultimately 85%		 70% 70% + 5% aux five years
Ultimately 85%		 90%
Rigid HDPE plastics 80% + 5% every five years
Ultimately 90%		 65% 65% + 10% every five years
Ultimately 85%		 90%
Rigid PET plastics 80% + 5% every five years
Ultimately 90%		 70% 70% + 5% every five years
Ultimately 85%		 80%
Other rigid plastics 75% + 5% every five years
Ultimately 85%		 65% 65% + 10% every five years
Ultimately 75%		 75%
Flexible plastics 50% + 5% every five years
Ultimately 85%		 40% 40% + 10% every five years
Ultimately 80%		 50%
Glass 70% + 5% after five years
Ultimately 75%		 65% 65% + 10% every five years
Ultimately 85%		 70%
Metals other than aluminum 75% + 5% every five years
Ultimately 90%		 70% 70% + 10% every five years
Ultimately 80%		 50%
Aluminum 55% + 5% every five years
Ultimately 80%		 45% 45% + 10% every five years
Ultimately 85%		 50%

1 Calculated on the basis of quantities shipped to a packager.
2 Calculated on the basis of quantities shipped to an approved reclamation site.
3 A maximum of 30% of the total weight of the residual materials that have been sent for local reclamation can be reclaimed locally but also elsewhere within or outside Québec for the purposes of achieving overall local reclamation outcomes.

Current value chain stakeholders

The Regulation stipulates that in order to manage the sorting, packaging and reclamation of residual materials, the Designated Management Body (DMB) must give preference to service providers that are in operation when contracts are awarded, thereby ensuring that existing expertise underpins the modernized selective collection system. Current value chain stakeholders can thus participate in the system insofar as they are able to satisfy the DMB’s requirements that will enable it to achieve prescribed performance outcomes. The Regulation also stipulates that when the DMB chooses its service provider, it must consider the system’s accessibility by different business models. It must also ensure that a service provider has a physical presence in the territory where the service is to be provided.

Service for clients throughout the territory, including isolated or remote territories

The DMB must assume responsibility for the target products that are generated throughout Québec, including isolated or remote territories. The organization must, as such, sign collection and transport contracts that consider territorial and regional particularities. Section 25 of the RegulationThis hyperlink will open in a new window. stipulates the minimal content of such contracts. In the case of identified isolated and remote territories, collection and transport contracts must also cover conditions governing the storage, sorting, and/or packaging of residual materials prior to shipment. When an Indigenous community is one of the signatories of a collection and transport contract with the DMB, local workforce training and cultural and linguistic particularities of the selective collection service must be considered. The terms and conditions governing the service offered to clients and the implementation of information, awareness and educational measures must also be addressed.

Complementarity of the deposit-refund and selective collection systems

Modernization of the twinned systems is a complementary process. Together, they have the capacity to assume responsibility for all containers, packaging, and printed matter (including newspapers) marketed in Québec and ship them to high-performance recovery and reclamation industrial locations. As such, any change in the residual materials targeted by one system directly impacts the other. Together, the systems are responsible for processing nearly one million tonnes of residual materials each year. They must be considered in a comprehensive, integrated manner to significantly, sustainably enhance their performance and sustain the adhesion of each one’s stakeholders. What is more, the regulations governing the modernization of the deposit-refund and selective collection systems stipulate the obligation for both designated management bodies to sign an agreement linking the systems regarding the operational and financial arrangements pertaining to the management of products targeted by one system but found in the other.

Documentation

Statute, Regulation, and decree

Popularized documentation

Thematic factsheets on the Regulation

Documents produced under working group mandates

Four working groups, including representatives of all stakeholders, were established to underpin the legislative and regulatory work pertaining to the modernization of selective collection. These are as follows:

  • Working group 1 - Assessment of sorting centres;
  • Working group 2 - Assessment of municipal contracts;
  • Working group 3 - Balance between marketing and sorting/outlets;
  • Working group 4 - Legislative and regulatory work and specific procedural requirements.

The working groups produced the following deliverables: