Lighting Producers

As of January 1, 2023, producers are required to establish and operate a collection system for lighting. A compliance bulletin providing guidance on lighting collection systems will be posted prior to requirements coming into effect.

Collection Sites

Producers must ensure that consumers can drop off lighting free of charge at each site that is part of their collection system and satisfy the following requirements:

• If the lighting collection site is not part of a retail location, the site must accept all lighting
• If the lighting collection site is part of a retail location, the site must accept, at a minimum, all lighting that are of a similar size and function supplied by the producer at that location.
• The lighting collection site must be readily accessible to the public and must operate and accept lighting during normal business hours throughout the performance period.
• The lighting collection site must accept, at a minimum, up to 5 kilograms of lighting per day from any person.
• If the lighting collection site is not part of a retail location and the lighting collection site accepts more than 5 kilograms of lighting from a person on a single day, the operator of the site shall record the person’s name, contact information, any unique identifier assigned by the Registrar and the weight of lighting accepted.

For Ontario Crown sites, municipal sites located in municipalities with a population less than 1,000 and First Nations Reserves, the following requirements apply:

• Once the site has 300 kilograms of lighting, they may notify a PRO or a large producer for pick up
• The lighting must be collected within one year from notification
• Does not apply to the Far North

Producers can reduce their accessibility requirements by providing options such as curbside collection, mail back programs, or collection events.

Management Requirements

Producers must establish and operate a system for managing lighting by determining and satisfying their management requirements as follows:

• All lighting picked up from a collection site must be managed within three months from the date of the pickup
• Managed means reused, refurbished or processed (i.e. is now a recovered resource)

Recovered resources (including batteries removed from lighting) are:

• Materials used or destined to be used by a person for the making of new products or packaging
• Materials used to enrich soil
• Glass used as aggregate (up to 50% of management requirement for lighting)
• Aggregate from batteries (up to 15% of management requirement)

Materials that are not recovered (cannot count toward performance) include:

• Aggregate over the allowed limits
• Materials that are land disposed
• Materials that are incinerated or used as fuel or a fuel supplement
• Materials that are stored, stockpiled, used as a daily landfill cover or otherwise deposited on land (unless the enrich soil or as aggregate within allowable limits)

From January 1, 2023, to December 31, 2024, every producer shall make best efforts to reuse, refurbish, or recycle 30% of the lighting they supply in Ontario.

Working with PROs

A producer responsibility organization (PRO) is a business established to contract with producers to provide collection, management and administrative services to help producers meet their regulatory obligations under the EEE Regulation, including:

• Arranging the establishment or operation of collection and management systems (hauling, recycling, reuse or refurbishment services)
• Establishing or operating a collection or management system
• Preparing and submitting reports

PROs operate in a competitive market and producers can choose the PRO (or PROs) they want to work with. The terms and conditions of each contract with a PRO may vary. A list of registered lighting PROs will be made available at a later date.

From January 1, 2023, to December 31, 2024, producers of lighting are required to:

• Make reasonable efforts to raise public awareness of lighting recovery and reasonable efforts to encourage public participation, and
• Publish information on their website about collection locations, collection services, and recovery activities.

Details on when registration will open and how to register will be provided at a later date.

Under the EEE Regulation, lighting producers are required to register with RPRA:

• on or before November 30, 2022, if the producer marketed lighting between January 1, 2018, and November 30, 2022; or
• within 30 days of marketing lighting if the producer markets lighting after November 30, 2022.

Collection and Management System Reporting

On or before April 30, 2023 lighting producers, or PROs acting on their behalf, must submit the following information about their collection network:

• The location of every collection site that is part of their system to satisfy the accessibility requirements
• A description of their collection services (e.g. curbside)
• Every hauler, processor and refurbisher that is part of their collection or management system

More details on how and when to submit your report will be provided closer to the deadline.

Annual Supply Data Reporting

Starting in 2023, and every year thereafter, lighting producers must report their supply data.

• 2021 data with their 2023 report; 2022 data with their 2024 report, and so on.

Supply data must be submitted in accordance with the Registry Procedure – Verification and Audit. Verification of supply data and management reductions (e.g. post-consumer recycled content) is required starting in 2024.

Annual Performance Reporting

For the first performance period of January 1, 2023, to December 31, 2023, producers are required to make best efforts to ensure that at least 30% of lighting they collected, or was collected on their behalf, is processed, refurbished or reused. Starting in 2024, and every year thereafter, producers, or PROs on their behalf, will have to report on the extent to which a producer was able to achieve their management requirement.

Producers, or PROs on their behalf, are required to report the following information annually:

• Total weight of lighting collected
• Total weight of collected lighting that were refurbished
• Input the weight of materials recovered from processing the collected lighting (e.g. metals, plastics, etc.)

Most producers will work with a PRO to meet their mandatory collection and management requirements.  Learn more about PROs here.

If a PRO submits the report on your behalf, as a producer you are legally responsible to meet your requirements under the EEE Regulation.

Beginning in 2024, producers or PROs reporting on their behalf, will be required to submit an audit verifying their performance reporting. The first audit, due in 2024, will be verifying performance for 2023. Performance is audited every three years for the previous three performance periods, meaning the second audit will be due in 2027 (for the performance years 2024, 2025 and 2026). The audit must be conducted in accordance with the Registry Procedure – Verification and Audit.