A taste for conservation
LCBO deposit-return program starts
By ANTONELLA ARTUSO, QUEEN'S PARK BUREAU CHIEF

Ontarians began trekking to the Beer Store yesterday for the first day of the LCBO bottle deposit-return program.

Two people in line yesterday morning were Ontario Environment Minister Laurel Broten and Public Infrastructure Minister David Caplan, who returned bottles that had been decanted at an LCBO store for a media photo opportunity.

Broten said the deposit-return program, Bag It Back, will divert up to 30,000 tonnes of glass, or 80 million bottles, annually into the recycling stream.

"The new deposit-return program will move us closer to our shared goal of a sustainable society," Broten said. "We are all responsible for taking action to help improve our environment and recycling is one of the fundamental ways we can do that every day."

Ontario Environmental Commissioner Gord Miller discovered during a visit to a Brampton glass recycler that the company was importing glass from Manitoba and Quebec because the blue box could not deliver the raw materials as needed.

Miller anticipates the rate of recovery on LCBO containers to rise to 80% or more from the current rate of about 50%.

Miller said it was unthinkable that a publicly owned agency like the LCBO did not have an efficient means of recycling its product.