Frequently Asked Questions

Yes. The following resources can support you with submitting to the Datacall:

• Datacall User Guide
• Datacall Training Tool
• Checklist: Before you Begin
• Checklist: Before you Submit

The Short-form Datacall is a streamlined version of the Long-form Datacall developed for smaller municipalities. The Short-form Datacall has Section 3.3, and all of Section 5 removed. This means that eligible municipalities do not have to report any Non-Blue Box information. The Short-form Datacall still collects the necessary data for calculating the municipal program’s Blue Box funding (i.e. if a municipal program elects to complete the Short-form, their Blue Box funding will not be affected). Since Non-Blue Box sections are removed, the Authority will not calculate a diversion rate for municipal programs who report into the Short-form Datacall. If a municipal program would still like to receive a diversion rate, then they must report into the standard Datacall.

Through consultation with municipal programs and the Municipal Industry Program Committee (MIPC), a committee of the Authority’s, it was determined that municipal programs with populations of 30,000 or less may be eligible for the Short-form Datacall.

There could be several reasons why you are experiencing a server error in the Datacall.

The best way for us to support you is if you email a screenshot of the error and details of what occurred to datacall@rpra.ca. We will contact you once the error has been fixed, which is usually within the same business day.

The minimum browser requirements are:

• Macintosh: Netscape 6.0+, Firefox 1.0+, Mozilla 1.0+, Opera 8.5+
• Windows: Internet Explorer 6.0+, Firefox 1.0+, Netscape 6.0+, Mozilla 1.0+, Opera 8.5+
• Linux: Netscape 6.0+, Firefox 1.0+, Mozilla 1.0+
• JavaScript and Session Cookies must be turned on

Please note that Firefox is the preferred browser for the Datacall. Some users have identified compatibility issues with Google Chrome and it is recommended to avoid using it as your browser as the view will have missing components.

If this does not fix the problem, contact datacall@rpra.ca.

Yes. A PDF feature is available on the Datacall main page. This feature is offered throughout the entire Datacall submission period, including after the Datacall deadline. You can go back to access previous Datacall years and download the PDF’s.

If there are several users downloading PDFs at the same time, your PDF copy will be emailed to you typically by the end of the day. Select the sections you would like sent and enter an email address to receive the PDF files.

The Datacall automatically calculates a diversion credit for the following:

• The Ontario Deposit Return Program (5.51 kg/capita)
• Used Passenger and Light Truck (PLT) tires (currently 7.1 kg/capita)
• Backyard Composting (100 kg diversion credit for all backyard composters distributed to date) and
• Depending on the implementation of waste reduction policies, for example, implementing garbage bag limits and banning grass clippings at curbside, a percentage of total reported leaf and yard waste tonnage will be used as a credit for grasscycling

Yes. RPRA changes the Datacall record according to audit results, where applicable. All efforts are made to ensure these changes are reflected in the reporting year’s Datacall. Municipalities who were audited will receive a copy of their final audit report prior to the next Datacall reporting deadline.

If you have any questions regarding your previous year’s data, contact datacall@rpra.ca.

No. The Datacall form only marks a page as “incomplete” if there is a mandatory question that has been left unanswered, which is marked as “required”. You must complete required questions prior to moving on to another section.

Your previous years data is visible in sections 2, 3, 4, and 7. Otherwise, you can access your previous data by logging into your previous Datacall, using the following link: https://rpradatacall.ca/datacall2020/

User login information will be the same as what is used for the current year Datacall.

First the Steward Obligation, InKind and Continuous Improvement (CIF) amounts are determined and then the funding is allocated for each municipal program in the MFAM (Municipal Funding Allocation Model). The MFAM uses the following three factors to determine the funding amount for each municipal Blue Box program:

1. Best Practices score from Section 2.4 (accounts for 15% of funding)
2. Recovered Tonnage of Blue Box materials marketed (accounts for 35% of funding)
3. Net Cost of Blue Box program (accounts for 50% of funding)

It is recommended to retain information reported in the Datacall for at least five years. Even if a municipality has been audited before, they may be required to show supporting documentation for costs reported in past Datacalls. Information regarding amortized costs must be kept for the entire amortization period.

If you wish to use the excel upload tool in sections 2.3, 3.1 and 3.2, please download and complete the excel sheet and then email the document to datacall@rpra.ca requesting that it be uploaded.

Alternatively, you can input your data directly into the Datacall website.

The system will default to the contact(s) we have in our records for your program. Contact RPRA at datacall@rpra.ca to update the primary and secondary contacts.

In Question 1, a multi-family household is any unit or apartment in a residential building with six units or more that is served by your municipality or private contractor. You are to report the total number of multi family units and not the number of buildings in your municipality. For example: If your municipality has 4 buildings with 6 units in each building, then report 24 multi-family households.

In Question 2, enter the total number of multi-family households (units) that receive municipal curbside service for each waste stream listed. Do not include any multi-family households that do not receive curbside collection from your program.

In Question 3, report the multi-family and/or single-family households that receive only depot collection.

The recommended sources are:

• Statistics Canada
• Canada Post
• Ministry of Municipal Affairs
• Municipal Clerks Department
• Municipal Finance Department
• Municipal Planning Department
• Municipal Property Assessment Corporation
• The Ontario Municipal Directory

If you use another source, please specify the source in the comment section at the bottom of the page in Section 2.1. To keep data consistent, it is recommended that the same data source used in previous years to also be used in following years.

Yes. Users are able to carry over the number of households from Section 2.1 Populations and Households to various contracts in Section 3. In Section 3 there will be a question (In the Blue Box Tonnes tab and the Materials Collected sub-tab) asking if all of the households in your program receive the same level of service under this contract.

If YES is selected, the numbers from Section 2.1 are automatically imported.

If the answer is NO, then household data is not imported and this section will have to be completed manually.

The Datacall User Guide defines a set out limit as no additional bags/bins/carts being allowed beyond the limit, even if there is a bag tag program or additional garbage fees for extra bags.

You may report expenditures for any of the Blue Box P&E materials that are listed in Section 2.3 of the Datacall. Remember to apply a percentage that accurately represents the portion of the materials related to the residential Blue Box program. Do not report any InKind advertising linage.

Note: Administration staff cost is for the administration of the P&E materials only, and not for the entire Blue Box program. It is important to keep good records on how the P&E allocations were determined in case of an audit, or if RPRA should request it.

To calculate Blue Box P&E admin staff costs there are several steps:

• Determine total admin costs (salary, benefits, etc.) for promotion and education related to waste management and enter it in the first column
  • Determine this cost based on the number of hours spent on P&E, not the total number of total hours for this position
• Determine the ratio of the number of hours of Blue Box specific P&E activities versus total number of hours of P&E for waste management
  • Convert this ratio of hours to a percent and enter it in the second column

Each year, the Authority reviews and grades the responses to the Best Practice questions. Municipalities will receive a Best Practice score (out of 100%) that contributes to 15% of their Blue Box funding. The 2020 relative weights of each Best Practice objective are as follows:

1. Program Performance Projections and Analysis (20.75% of Best Practice Score towards Blue Box funding)
2. Blue Box Efficiency Assessments (12.35% of Best Practice Score towards Blue Box funding)
3. Program Performance Outcomes (33.3% of Best Practice Score towards Blue Box funding)
4. Training of Key Program Staff in Core Competencies (11.23% of Best Practice Score towards Blue Box funding)
5. Blue Box Promotion and Education Achievements and Initiatives (11.23% of Best Practice Score towards Blue Box funding)
6. Development of Effective Policies that Promote Waste Diversion (11.23% of Best Practice Score towards Blue Box funding)

No. Do not include any CIF funding in your operating cost calculations. CIF funding that is used for capital costs should be subtracted off of the total cost reported.

To add a new Blue Box contract, click on one of the existing Blue Box contracts from the list in the Section 3 menu screen/first landing page. This will take you to the contract tab of that particular contract. Then, create a new contract either by selecting a municipality, or by entering the name of a private contractor and click Add.

If a Blue Box contract has expired and there is no data to enter, check the deactivated checkbox in the Section 3 main menu screen/first landing page that lists all Blue Box contracts. Deactivating will automatically complete all of the tabs in that contract.

It is recommended for historical tracking purposes that you do not delete old contracts and instead deactivate them.

Collection

• Public or municipal contract-based collection of or from:
  • Permanent or seasonal single and multi-family households (including rental, cooperative or condominium residential)
    • Multi-family households are defined as residential units in buildings with six or more units (per O.Reg 103/94)
  • Senior citizen residences and long-term care facilities
  • Public and secondary schools collected along a residential collection route, concurrently with residential tonnes
• The residential component of publicly-operated (municipally-owned or contracted) drop-off depots, at dedicated depots, or depots at landfill sites
• Public space recycling containers, if they are collected on a residential collection route concurrently with residential tonnes (tonnes from special events/festivals are not eligible)
• Municipally owned and operated campgrounds can be reported as residential only if there are permanent households or seasonal households, i.e. a trailer park (weekend campgrounds are
  considered IC&I)

Processing

• Public or municipal contract-based collected materials from permanent or seasonal single and multi-family households (including rental, cooperative or condominium residential)
• Collected materials from senior citizen residences and long-term care facilities where the materials are processed at a municipally-owned or contracted MRF
• Public or municipal contract-based collected materials from public and secondary schools, collected during residential collection
• Collected materials from public and secondary schools where the materials are processed at a municipally-owned MRF
• Residential components of publicly-operated (municipally-owned or contracted) drop-off depots, located either at dedicated depots or landfill sites
• Public space recycling containers that are comingled with residential Blue Box materials (e.g.
  bins in public parks) collected along a residential route

To learn more, read pages 9 and 10 of the Datacall User Guide.

Only residential Blue Box costs and tonnes are eligible for industry funding. Therefore, the portion of tonnes and costs from IC&I must be accounted for. There are different ways to calculate these allocations, including those listed below.

• For collection, IC&I allocations may be determined by dividing the number of IC&I stops on a collection route by the total number of stops. The number of IC&I stops as a ratio of total stops is a good indicator of costs for collection activities. This allocation may then be applied to all costs and/or tonnes reported in that contract.
• For Non-Blue Box allocations (e.g., if a truck co-collects Blue Box material and organics), costs must be apportioned to account for the collection of an additional waste stream.
• Allocations for processing costs may be based on tonnes. For instance, if a municipality owns a Material Recovery Facility (MRF) that processes Blue Box material from another municipality, the tonnes and costs related to that processing would have to be removed from the reported tonnes and costs.
• Depot costs may be handled in a similar manner, using the proportion of IC&I tonnes to remove ineligible costs. Alternatively, costs could be deducted according to the time that depot staff spend on Non-Blue Box materials, or the percentage of space at the depot allotted to Non-Blue Box materials.

If you are still having trouble allocating IC&I and Non-Blue Box percentages, contact the Authority at datacall@rpra.ca for assistance.

Marketed glass may be used for the manufacturing of new containers or used for any beneficial application, such as fibreglass, sand blasting, drainage, filter media and construction projects outside of a landfill.

Alternatively, aggregate that meets Ontario Ministry of Transportation Standards may include glass marketed or used as an aggregate replacement (including aggregate in a landfill road) where the glass is no more than 15% of the aggregate mix as outlined in Ministry of Transportation specifications.

As a collected Blue Box material, #3 Plastics are reported under Other Bottles and Containers (#3, 4, 5, 7).

As a marketed material, #3 Plastics are reported under Mixed Plastics #1-#7, or Commingled Materials.

You answer NO if all the collected and marketed tonnes are reported in the same table.

A depot is any of the following:

• Drop-off site
• Transfer station
• Landfill
• Community collection site
• Special event day site

Depot collection involves residents bringing their materials to a specified location, whereas a curbside program collects materials directly from residential addresses.

Single stream collection is defined as a collection system where all materials are collected in a commingled mixture and there is no pre-sorting.

A multi-stream collection system has at least two or more separate bins for different materials (e.g. a bin for containers and plastics, and another bin for paper/fibers).

In Section 3, you report market tip fees under the Blue Box Tonnes tab and Tonnes and Material Revenue sub-tab next to the appropriate Blue Box material.

Note: Market tip fees are mostly applicable to glass. The Datacall treats market tip fees as a processing cost, so do not deduct market tip fees from revenues.

No. A complete list of Blue Box materials is included in the Datacall User Guide Appendix F.

Note: Blue Box materials are Printed Paper and Packaging (PPP). Report bulky rigid plastics as Other Recyclables in Section 3.3: Non-Blue Box Services.

Under Revenue, indicate if you share revenue by selecting YES or NO in the drop-down menu. If you are a municipality that retains all Blue Box revenue for this contract, answer NO for this question.

If you select YES, enter the percentage of revenue kept by your contractor and the form will automatically calculate the percentage received by your municipality.

If your revenue-sharing agreement is based on an arrangement other than, or in addition to, a percent revenue share, please describe your revenue-sharing agreement in the comment box provided.

Yes. For Blue Box material, RPRA requires the information to be submitted for each individual contract or service provider.

Yes. Enter information separately for each service provider, including any informal agreements with service providers for collection and/or processing of Blue Box materials.

If you process material for another municipality that reports in the Datacall, please do not include tonnage and financial data for that municipality in your Datacall submission.

Instead, report this material as IC&I in your Datacall.

Yes. For all capital purchases (even those reported in previous years), the IC&I and Non-Blue Box percentages must be updated to the current year’s amounts.

The Net Residential Blue Box Cost (grey box on the right) must reflect the portion of the item that was used solely for Blue Box purposes in the current reporting year.

Example: A Depot/Transfer Building was purchased in 2017 for $100,000. 20% of the building was used for Non-Blue Box and 20% was used for IC&I, totaling a Net Residential Blue Box Cost of $64,000. In 2019, 20% of the building was still used for garbage, but only 10% of it was used for IC&I material. To reflect this change in the 2019 Datacall, the 2017 Depot /Transfer Building line item must be updated to 10% IC&I, and 20% Non-Blue Box. The Datacall automatically calculates the Net Residential Blue Box Cost to equal $72,000.00.

Municipalities no longer need to report Non-Blue Box data by municipal or private contract service type.

Instead, this information is to be consolidated and reported as services provided by both private contractors and services provided by municipal staff.

White goods, including small appliances, are to be reported in the WEEE tab of the Non-Blue Box Contracts/Services Section in Section 3.3.

Scrap metal, not including white goods, are to be reported in the Non-Blue Box Services tab – Other Recyclables sub-tab.

No. Municipalities are still required to report the tonnes of WEEE collected. 80% of the material reported counts toward diversion.

A 20% residue rate is assumed for all municipal programs, regardless of whether they receive a different residue rate from their processor.

This depends on the specifics of the arrangement. Please contact the Authority for further information and clarification at datacall@rpra.ca.

In general, only residential WEEE collected by municipal efforts is reported in the Datacall.

Household shingles generated by your residents can be reported in Section 3.3: Non-Blue Box.

If the shingles are from a business or commercial source (including a private contractor, construction companies, etc.), they must be reported as IC&I because the material is being collected by a business and being brought to a depot/transfer station/landfill as an IC&I material.

If the items are commingled and there is no way to report the tonnes separately, you can report them under Other C&D material.

Section 4  is a summary of data already entered in Section 3. It is good practice to review Section 4 to check for accuracy and completeness.

Yes. The total MHSW tonnage collected may be reported in Section 5 GAP, question K.

The percentage of recycled and reused may be reported in question M.

Question C in Section 5 GAP asks for tonnes distributed for reuse through facilities operated directly by municipality. Full credit is given for reported tonnes in this question.

Additionally, the Datacall asks for tonnes distributed for reuse through facilities to which municipality provides no-charge disposal of residual waste. 10% of any tonnage reported in this field will be counted toward diversion.

Do not report tire tonnes in any section of the Datacall form. Each program is assigned an automatic credit of 7.1kg/cap in the GAP Section 5, question J.

The diversion rate calculated in the GAP summary is unverified.

Do not publish your GAP diversion rate until Datacall verification and analysis has been completed and the diversion rates have been published by RPRA.

As per page 10 of the Datacall User Guide, all IC&I tonnes must be removed from reported tonnages and from reported costs. Page 10 of the User Guide specifies that business improvement areas (BIA), are to be reported as IC&I; however, apartments above these businesses can be included as residential.

We advise to keep a record of how the allocation was calculated. If you would like additional assistance with calculating the IC&I rate on your BIA, contact datacall@rpra.ca.

As per page 10 of the Datacall User Guide, public space recycling containers that are comingled with residential Blue Box materials (e.g. bins in public parks) collected along a residential route, are eligible for Blue box funding. The bins do not have to be permanently placed, so long as they are not special event or temporary bins, they are eligible for funding.

As per page 9 of the Datacall User Guide, public and secondary schools collected along a residential route, concurrently with residential tonnes are eligible for funding.

If a separate or dedicated collection run is made, it is no longer eligible for funding.

If you have a concern about your audit selection, please contact RPRA at datacall@rpra.ca.

No. You are encouraged to continue to report all Blue Box tonnes into the Datacall.