On April 30, 1997, the Alberta government approved the Lubricating Oil Material Recycling and Management Regulation. This established AUOMA as the Delegated Administrative Organization (DAO) charged with managing programs to facilitate the collection and recycling of used oil materials in Alberta.
AUOMA is a not-for-profit association of wholesale suppliers of lubricating oil materials with partners and stakeholders. These include all first sellers of oil, oil filters and plastic oil containers; collectors and processors of used oil materials; provincial recycling organizations and government.
The program is funded by an Environmental Handling Charge (EHC), not a government tax, placed on wholesale suppliers of lubricating oil and filters. In turn, a Return Incentive (RI) is paid to private sector collectors. Collection points are accessible to all Albertans and the collectors are compensated through the Freight Equalized Zone Pricing for RIs.
Since its inception, this “Made in Alberta”, industry-led stewardship program has demonstrated it works environmentally, economically and socio-economically. This model has been adopted elsewhere in Canada and around the world.