The province should extend the Extended Producer Responsibility Program for cigarettes and vaping products.
The City of Delta put forward that proposal as a resolution at the Lower Mainland Government Association, part of a series of local government resolutions which will be forwarded directly to the Union BC Municipalities following the cancellation of the LGA conference due to COVID-19.
The Delta resolution states that waste from smoking cigarettes and vaping is unsightly, toxic to the environment and marine life, and is one of the most common sources of litter in many communities, but awareness and enforcement campaigns have been ineffective and public ashtray programs have had mixed success.
The resolution resolves that the UBCM request the provincial government work with the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment to include cigarettes and vaping waste as a priority product category for extended producer responsibility in Canada, consistent with the 2019 Canada-Wide Action Plan on Zero Plastic Waste.
The government would also be asked to work with the industry to implement a province-wide extended producer responsibility deposit return program for cigarettes and vaping waste to eliminate litter generated from smoking.
The City of Delta was asked earlier this year to make a request to the provincial government to implement a deposit on cigarette butts to encourage people to turn them in for disposal rather than tossing them away.
That request was made by Delta resident Deborah Jones, a member of the Cougar Creek Streamkeepers.
A Delta staff response noted that in 2016, the City of North Vancouver submitted a resolution to the UBCM that requested the B.C. Ministry of Environment and Climate Action Strategy implement a province-wide cigarette butt deposit-return program.
The ministry responded at the time that the priority was for new Extended Producer Responsibility programs in the province align with a Canada-Wide Action Plan for Extended Producer Responsibility and include construction and demolition waste, textiles and mattresses as future priorities for regulation.
The addition of tobacco product waste was not being considered at that time and there has been no change in provincial policy.
“Given that four years have passed since this UBCM resolution, a renewed resolution on cigarette (and vaping) waste could be brought forward by Delta in the context of the new BC Plastics Action Plan and Canada-wide strategy on Zero Plastic Waste. Staff will include a draft resolution for Council’s consideration in the upcoming report to Council on 2020 UBCM resolutions,” the Delta staff response noted.
