Schedule 5: Criteria to Distinguish Recyclable Materials from Products

The following are criteria have been used by Environment Canada to characterise materials to be considered as wastes or recyclable materials. (It is important to emphasise that these criteria need to be examined as a whole.):

• It is unavoidably produced in the generation of another material or it is at the end of its useful life.
• It is intended for final disposal (including storage) or it is a recyclable that requires recovery/treatment before it can be used.
• Its production is not subject to adequate quality control or national/international standards.
• It may meet industrial requirements for use as an ingredient only under certain circumstances or only in one facility.
• It has a low or negative economic value.
• Its markets are not well defined, unstable or are very limited.
• Its use/reuse generates wastes that must be further treated in excess of those which may result from the use of virgin input.
• It has a great potential for contamination that would make it more hazardous than the product it replaces.