He's not here. I'm ready to go.
Thank you.
There are six of you here, so I'm sure one of you can answer my question. I'm trying to understand the extended producer responsibility, because the latest statistics we have in our possession show that Canada has lagged way behind the Europeans in the collection of e-waste. In fact, Sweden is at 70%, and Canada is at 14%. Mr. Drouin, I think you're coming up with some additional stats on this, but that is not a pretty picture to paint for Canadians. We're laggards in that area.
My understanding of extended producer responsibility is that those very manufacturers of the products that end up being waste, which those manufacturers profit from, are responsible for the eventual recycling or at least collection of that waste. Do I have that correct so far?
All right. I see you nodding. Thank you.
Yet, we're at 14% in Canada. These manufacturers, by the way, charge fees to consumers, to their customers. At some point in time, to obviate the responsibility of the consumer to do all the recycling, the manufacturer gets paid for this, yet it doesn't appear that the producers are actually doing the work they have been paid to do. I'm obviously missing something in that equation. Can someone explain to me EPR and the degree to which manufacturers are actually responsible for recycling e-waste?