Surrey garden centre expects Multi Material BC program to cost it $20K a year

NEWTON — The manager of a Surrey garden centre expects a cost of nearly $20,000 per year to his business in relation to the province’s new recycling program, Multi Material BC.

The province approved MMBC in 2013 as B.C.’s “extended-responsibility” entity to shift the responsibility for recycling product packaging to industry.

Miles Hunter, general manager of David Hunter Garden Centers, anticipates he will have to pay $3,000 to $5,000 in fees to the program every year, but the real kicker is the estimated $10,000 to $15,000 he’ll have to spend annually to pay someone to calculate what he’ll owe.

“On a daily basis, my office administrator, who is my mother right now, is going to have to go through every invoice line by line, item by item, and determine whether we have to pay a fee on it and how much that is going to be,” Hunter explained.

Hunter said there were some discussions about businesses recycling their own materials.

“We recycle a lot of pots here. We accept them back from our customers and we send them to recycling facilities to be recycled,” he said, adding that he was on board with doing so himself.

“Unfortunately, the legislation said it had to submit a plan to the government guaranteeing that you’re going to be able to reclaim 75 per cent of the material that you put out to consumers. I’m sorry, but that’s just not possible.”

And Hunter said there’s a long list of items he’ll have to pay fees for.

Naturally, as a garden centre, the biggest ticket item will be plastic pots.

“We’ll have to pay for the pot, the little information tag that comes with the plant identifying the variety and how to grow it. So that’s probably our biggest part,” he said.

“Our company has been around for 60 years, and when we started, plants were sold in metal tin containers. So plastic pots were a significant improvement on that. There are some products that we sell in paper pots, but they don’t last long enough for the life of a plant to be grown and raised. So there are little to no alternatives for packaging plants to sell to consumers.

“So in terms of the government’s goal to try and reduce the packaging on products, I don’t think that’s possible for many of these pots. A plant has to have some kind of pot holding it when you sell it to the customer.”

But there’s a plethora of other items he will have to hand over money for, including packaging for products such as fertilizer, cardboard flats used by customers to transport plants and even things like cash register receipts and information brochures.

“I can’t imagine the administration required for me to keep track of the paper that I use to print information brochures. I buy a box of paper from Staples, and I use it to print invoices and all sorts of different things, and some small percentage gets used to print information brochures. How am I supposed to calculate that?” Hunter asked.

As well, the company has David Hunter Garden Centers branded potting soil, so it will be responsible for all those bags as well.

When you delve into everything, it really starts to add up, he said.

Hunter also expressed concern over weights laid out in an MMBC worksheet – weights he says are not necessarily accurate.

“How do I accurately calculate my total weight of plastic that I contribute if these weights are wrong? Is there recourse for me to weigh my pots and say my pots weigh 100 grams, not 150 grams? As far as I can see, this program has no accountability. There’s no incentive for Multi Material BC to provide good customer service,” Hunter said.

Exemptions are yet another concern.

Under the new regulation, businesses with less than $1 million in revenue, which distribute less than one tonne of packaging to consumers or are a single-location operation, will be exempt from registering with the program.

“So if you’re a retail location that does $10 million in sales, you’re still exempt because you have one location. We have two stores – one in Vancouver and one in Surrey – and because of that, we’re not exempt. There are other garden centres that have a single retail location that will be exempt. That makes our company less competitive.”

As well, Hunter doesn’t believe there’s a clear picture of who is responsible for paying what.

“They talk about the producers and when we are buying from a nursery here in B.C., that person is considered the producer. They’re supposed to pay the fee,” Hunter said. “I’ve got suppliers saying to me, ‘No, no, no. I don’t have to pay.’ So if I buy those products and sell those products and somebody comes back and audits me three years later and says, ‘That company didn’t pay so you have to pay it.’”

He finds himself increasingly frustrated, and said as far as he can see, there’s not enough clarity for businesses in terms of how the program will play out.

And Hunter noted that the cost to businesses makes a much bigger impact than if households were to absorb the costs.

“There’s a lot of number being thrown around right now. One is that the average homeowner pays $200 to $300 for garbage and recycling and if we’re saying it’s going to cost the average business $3,000 to $5,000 – if you took an extra $10 to $15 per household, you’d pay for all of this,” he said.

BUSINESS GROUPS OPPOSED

Opposition continues to mount over the new recycling program.

The Surrey Board of Trade and the South Surrey & White Rock Chamber of Commerce have come out against the program, citing the potential hardships it poses to businesses.

Anita Huberman, CEO of the SBoT, said there are considerable concerns with the way the program has been rolled out.

“We’re concerned that the financial and administrative impact on business will result in much higher fees required to comply with the law, or administrative loads necessary to comply with these additional levels of red tape. This will increase the cost to business and, in effect, our economy,” she said.

The SBoT urges the province to impose a delay in the program, or stop it altogether.

Cliff Annable, executive director of the chamber, said there will be huge costs to many businesses.

“I don’t think they thought this through,” Annable said of the government. “So simply, we as a chamber cannot support the program as it now stands. I think it will cost a lot of money, which will cost jobs.”

The Canadian Federation of Independent Business is also asking the province to rethink the plan.

Meanwhile, the cities of White Rock and Surrey have signed a Multi Material BC recycling contract, while Delta has deferred participation to have an opportunity to look into the plan’s “true cost.”

The program is set to roll out on May 19.

With files from Vancouver Sun

areid@thenownewspaper.com