WHEREAS the BC Recycling Regulation specifies the minimum amount for beverage container deposit or refund, this amount is lower than the minimum set out the in the Alberta Beverage Container Recycling Regulation, and recover rates will increase with higher refunds; AND WHEREAS recovery rates in BC have remained at 70 75 for many years and millions of containers still go to landfills, and travelling out of province to collect higher deposits or refunds should be discouraged: THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Union of British Columbia Municipalities lobby the Ministry of Environment for the addition of milk containers to the Recycling Regulation.
Ministry of Environment The BC Recycling Regulation establishes stewardship responsibilities for producers and sellers of ready-to-serve beverages of all kinds except milk, milk substitutes, liquid meal replacements and infant formula, within a deposit refund system. Minimum deposits and refunds are: one litre or less for non-alcoholic beverages 5 cents one litre or less for alcoholic beverages 10 cents more than 1 litre for any beverage type 20 cents In November 2008 Alberta increased its deposit levels to 10 cents for all containers of 1 litre or less and 25 cents for all containers greater than 1 litre. Dairy and dairy based beverages were also included in the Alberta system at that time. For 2009, the Alberta container recovery rate was 81.9 percent up from 77 percent as compared to 83.16 percent for BC 2009 overall results. Milk containers are accepted for recycling in many municipal recycling programs and at 144 Encorp Return It depots across BC. This voluntary initiative has achieved recovery rates of 72.3 per cent including curbside and depot recovery without imposing deposit-refund requirements. Increasing deposit-refund values and including milk containers within the BC deposit refund system may result in a marginal increase in the overall container recovery rate. BC is monitoring the Alberta experience to determine if this increase would be large enough to justify the additional impacts to business and consumers.