Manitoba to impose 80% blue box levy on magazines

Manitoba is following Ontario's lead in blue box recycling levies for magazines, and one-upping it. According to a story in Masthead, Manitoba publishers will begin paying beginning April 1, 2010 if the new legislation goes through, as seems likely. Publishers would receive an invoice on May 1, based on 2009 data.

Stewardship Ontario now requires publishers to pay 50% of the net imputed costs of handling printed paper. The new Manitoba legislation will require 80% (and will Ontario be slow to follow suit? I don't think so.)

Manitoba, like Ontario, hasn't cracked the problem of how to make foreign magazine publishers pay their fair share. Essentially, the likes of Hearst and Conde Nast and Meredith and Hachette simply ignore the levy -- despite the fact that they are a huge contributor to the recycling burden -- and nobody but the Canadian industry says boo.

Related posts:

• Freeze blue box rates; make system fair, demands Magazines Ontario
• Ontario magazine publishers face 53% blue box fee increase
• Roundtable created to recommend how Ontario can fix flaws in blue box program
• Foreign publishers get a free ride in Ontario blue box levy