SCRAP RECYCLING USED OIL RECYCLING
BUILDING THE MODEL FOR USED OIL RECOVERY IN B.C. BCUOMA PROGRAM IS TRANSFORMING THE WAY WE COLLECT AND RESPONSIBLY MANAGE USED OIL, ANTIFREEZE AND FILTERS BY KEITH BARKER, EDITOR
D
avid Lawes (pictured above) has spent just over six years with the B.C. Used Oil Management Association (BCUOMA.) Prior to that, he was with the B.C. provincial government in the Ministry of Environment where he oversaw recycling programs and led the award-winning B.C. government team behind many of the recycling programs in place around the province today. “The product stewardship policy approach that we have in British Columbia is considered world-class,” says Lawes. “It’s a results-based regulatory approach where government has put industry in charge of managing the products they
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make and sell, and then set high standards and reporting requirements. The government really doesn’t get involved in the day-to-day operations of recycling businesses, instead it leaves that up to the business people that are running the take-back programs. “I’m a British Columbian, so I’m pretty proud of what we’ve done here.” He says the model used in B.C. for managing used automotive and industrial oil and other fluids including antifreeze has been noticed across the country and in the U.S., but from a government perspective, the results-based model in BC can be hard to replicate in other jurisdictions. “It takes a lot of trust in the quid pro quo equilibrium and braveness on behalf of government.
Government needs to provide industry with the flexibility it needs to design and efficiently deliver these programs. Government then needs to keep laser focused on having the right metrics and regulatory provisions in place to make sure targets are being met, and the public interest is being served, but stay out of the operations.”
HOW THE B.C. USED OIL RECYCLING MODEL WORKS
The BC Used Oil Management Association (BCUOMA) started in 2003, the same year the provincial government regulated that producers be put in charge of used automotive and industrial oil and fluids recycling. (“Producers” are the first sellers of products such as
