Stewards Association of British Columbia (SABC), an alliance of fifteen Stewardship Agencies, hosted a meeting earlier this month in Victoria, BC. Stewardship agencies in BC are non-profit organizations formed by producers and brand owners as part of their compliance under the BC Recycling Regulation. These agencies collect and divert end-of-life consumer products and packaging from disposal.

Special guests included staff from the BC Ministry of Environment and Climate Change and joining the meeting was HRAI staff Kathleen O’Malley, Environmental Projects Specialist. Kathleen noted “It was great to get together in person and the positive energy resulted in productive discussions allowing for an engaging day. The dedicated and hard work of Stewardship Agencies help make recycling easier and more accessible to residents”.

HRAI’s Thermostat Recovery Program (TRP) is one such Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) stewardship program in BC and serves as a Producer Responsibility Organization (PRO), administering this stewardship program across Canada on behalf of thermostat manufacturers subject to extended producer responsibility regulations in British Columbia, Manitoba, and Ontario. The TRP program is funded by the manufacturers that sell and/or import or have historically sold mercury-containing thermostats into Canada.

The TRP program is focused on recovering and recycling thermostats that are no longer in use and accepts mercury-containing, electronic and mechanical thermostats and ensures that all the components, especially mercury, are kept out of the waste stream. To learn more about the program or to register as a participant visit www.hrai.ca/trp.

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