TORONTO - Ontario's $40-million electronic recycling program isn't a failure even though it has fallen far short of provincial targets to divert tonnes of discarded TVs and computers from landfills, Environment Minister John Gerretsen said Monday.

Ontario Electronic Stewardship, an industry-led corporation that's supposed to collect the waste, isn't living up to its commitments to the province, he acknowledged.

The agency promised to recycle about 33,000 tonnes of electronic junk in the first year of the program, but collected only 17,000 tonnes, he said.

"It is absolutely not a failure: 17,000 tonnes are being diverted from landfill sites that otherwise would have ended up there," Gerretsen told the legislature.

Critics say the original target was actually 42,000 tonnes, but that was reduced to 33,000 tonnes partway through last year.

Most of the province's e-waste is going to landfills or being illegally exported, said NDP critic Peter Tabuns. And Gerretsen's "Pollyanna perspective" doesn't cut it when consumers are paying an extra $2 to $26 on new electronic gadgets to help fund a program that isn't working.

"If you throw electronic waste in (to landfills) that's got mercury and other toxic substances, you're talking about potential threats to ground water, you're talking about the well-being of people in this province," Tabuns said.

"He should have been acting very aggressively to recycle the material. Obviously he's shown he can't do it."

OES, which counts executives from Best Buy, Sony and Sears among its directors, "is proud of the progress" it's made in establishing the recycling program, said executive director Carol Hochu.

It recently expanded the program to include cellphone, digital cameras and music players, she said.

"We recognize that there are areas for improvement in the electronic waste recycling program's operation, and that is why we are in the midst of consultations with our processor partners and other service providers," Hochu said in a release.

"We will soon put forward proposals for new incentives and other improvements to the system, so that we can collect and recycle even more electronic waste and ensure that it doesn't end up being dumped here in Ontario or anywhere else."

It's clear that the program, which has collected an estimated $40 million from consumers since it started last year, shouldn't be left in the hands of electronics manufacturers and sellers, Tabuns said.

"We have a lot of experience with public agencies running waste collection," he said.

"We have experience with collection of materials that (Gerretsen) should have been able to draw on and put in place."

Gerretsen said the government will hold OES responsible for falling short of its targets, but isn't about to scrap its partnership with the industry.

"I don't think that we should make too much of this at this stage," he said. "It is one year into the program."

There are improvements, including higher fees for collecting, transporting and recycling the junk, he added. For example, collectors are paid about $235 per tonne of waste, up from $165 per tonne.

The government is trying to toughen Ontario's waste diversion laws and may ban electronic waste from landfills to overcome some of the challenges the recycling program faces, he said. It also wants stiffer penalties to make sure provincial targets are met.

"We want to make sure that this stuff stays out of our landfill sites, and we also want to make sure that it isn't being shipped to Third World countries," Gerretsen said.