In the Canadian province of Quebec, companies are required by law to finance municipal curbside recycling, to the tune of CAN$150 million per year (112M US$). The organization responsible for managing the program, Éco Entreprises Québec (ÉEQ), has collected over CAN$1.3 billion since the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) program was launched in 2005. These are hefty sums for a mid-sized market but sums that have not prevented companies who market containers, packaging and printed matter (CP&PM) from choosing to voluntarily increase their participation in order to promote a more competitive system. ÉEQ implemented a series of initiatives aiming to maximize various components of the Quebec curbside recycling system in order to make these more competitive and to have better control over costs.