Environment committee  Producers fund the operation of the beverage container system, and again, it's highly, highly effective. There was an EPR program for used motor oil containers; those were recycled in a similar fashion. I don't know of any other fund that producers are paying into currently. I just know the legacy programs, and I'm fortunate to be sitting on the governance of one of them.

Environment committee  People balk at high numbers for performance targets, but you're not going to get the innovation and the scale shooting for low numbers like 30%. So, the European Union has gone for a 70% recycling rate for all plastics and a 90% rate for plastic beverage containers. Those sorts of high performance standards are going to require investments in systems to collect that material.

Environment committee  Thanks for allowing me to appear today. I'm going to be speaking on and basically delivering a précis of some work that I did for the Smart Prosperity Institute here in Ottawa, called “A Vision for a Circular Economy for Plastics in Canada”. That work itself was precipitated by the work that my colleagues and I did for the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment in looking at the barriers to a circular economy for plastics.

Environment committee  I think the innovation that's happening is in the systems to collect materials and the systems to recycle them. The officials from Environment Canada mentioned 80 core players in the Canadian market that are recycling plastics. They're bringing new technologies to bear on recycling plastics, and some very innovative stuff in the chemical and mechanical recycling of plastics.

Environment committee  Yes, sorry, I haven't been able to talk.

Environment committee  I think the way to address the plastic waste in developing countries is to use the same policy tools that you would use in Canada. We've talked about extended producer responsibility, which then puts the onus on manufacturers to collect and manage these materials and build the systems to do that.