Frequently asked questions

In Ontario, if you purchase batteries, electronics, household hazardous and special products, lighting, tires, or materials that end up in your Blue Box, you may see an extra charge added to your receipt called an environmental fee, resource recovery fee, environmental handling fee, tire handling fee, eco-⁠fee, recycling fee or something similar.

Businesses have the choice to recover the cost of recycling their products by incorporating those costs into the overall cost of their product (as they do with other costs, such as materials, labour, other regulatory compliance costs, etc.) or by charging it as a separate fee to consumers, which are sometimes known as an environmental fee.

Environmental fees are not mandatory and are applied at the discretion of the business charging them, including the amount of the fee.

No. An environmental fee is not a government tax and cannot be represented as mandatory, a regulatory charge, or an RPRA fee. It is a fee charged at the discretion of a business to recover their costs related to recycling the product.

If you are a consumer and believe that the purpose of a fee is being misrepresented, contact the Ministry of Public and Business Service Delivery directly at 1-800-889-9768.

Consumer protection laws in Ontario prohibits the misrepresentation of charges, which means that producers or retailers cannot misrepresent any visible fees as a regulatory charge, tax, RPRA fee or something similar. Consumers who have questions or concerns about a specific transaction or want to report a misrepresentation can contact the Ministry of Public and Business Service Delivery at 1-800-889-9768.

Ontario’s recycling regulations do not set an environmental fee for any product, the amount of the fee charged is decided by the business.

If you are concerned about the fee you were charged, you should contact the business that charged you the fee to request a more detailed explanation of how the fee was determined.

No. Public recycling locations (that are displayed on the Where to Recycle map) cannot charge the public a fee or refuse the drop-⁠off of materials that the location accepts.