January 2, 2007
No wine deposit, no return
Recycling bottles. SAQ resists pleas to allow new system
Michelle Lalonde
Sidewalks this week will be lined with big green boxes and blue containers full of empty bottles of wine and spirits.
But only about 60 per cent of such bottles sold in Quebec find their way into recycling bins. The rest, except perhaps for a few that are reused by home winemakers, end up at the dump. Meanwhile, 98 per cent of refillable beer bottles are recuperated.
The difference is that beer bottles are recuperated for reuse through a deposit-return system while wine and spirits bottles are collected through municipal curbside recycling programs, crushed and sold to companies that use recycled glass in their products.
No one denies that a deposit-return system gets much better results than the voluntary recycling program and is much more environmentally friendly.
But for years, Quebec's alcoholic beverage distributor, the Societe des alcools du Quebec, has resisted pleas from environmental groups and its own employees' unions to set up such a system.
Most other Canadian provinces have deposit-return systems in place, with impressive results.
British Columbia requires that all beverages sold in the province, except milk, milk substitutes and meal replacements, be sold in recyclable or refillable containers.
Consumers are charged an extra 10 or 20 cents for their alcoholic beverages (depending on the size) and reimbursed that amount when they bring the empty containers back to the liquor store.
According to the most recent available government statistics, wine, spirits and imported beer bottles are coming back at a rate of 89.6 per cent in that province.
In February, the Liquor Control Board of Ontario, a longtime holdout on the issue, will move to a deposit-return system.
"By having a bottle return system, we are hoping for a higher rate of recuperation," said Daniele Gauvin, manager of corporate communications for the LCBO.
"The blue (recycling) box works well for single family dwellings, but even if 90 per cent of households recycle their bottles, you've still got the banquet halls, restaurants and apartment buildings that don't and they bring the average down," she said.
The LCBO is getting a slightly higher rate of recuperation for wine and spirit bottles than Quebec's SAQ, about 68 per cent.
But the Ontario government has decided that simply isn't good enough.
"I guess the government felt the public was ready to take this to the next step," Gauvin said.
The Ontario government hopes to push the rate to about 85 per cent under the new system, diverting about 25,000 tonnes of glass from landfills and freeing up space in recycling boxes, thus giving municipal governments the opportunity to expand recycling programs.
Ontario will pay the Brewer's Retail Inc. to handle returns so consumers will have to return wine and liquor bottles to Beer Store outlets, which are already set up to accommodate large volumes of bottle returns.
The Brewer's Retail will get 10 cents a bottle to process the returns - about $15 million in the first year if an estimated 150 million containers are returned.
"We don't know what to expect in terms of participation," said Amy Tang, a spokesperson for Ontario's Ministry of Public Infrastructure Renewal. She said polls have shown that about 75 per cent of the Ontario public support the program and intend to participate.
Other provinces and U.S. states that have bottle deposit-return programs have found they not only reduce the amount of recyclable materials getting sent to landfills, they reduce litter dramatically.
At least 11 states have enacted so-called "bottle bills," and a study by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency showed those states recycle more tonnes of containers than the 39 other states combined.
Beverage containers comprise 40 per cent to 60 per cent of litter, and deposit-return laws can reduce container litter by 69 per cent to 84 per cent, according to the Container Recycling Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based organization that promotes recovery and recycling of beverage containers.
The SAQ does not deny that a deposit-return program would boost recuperation rates.
"The cost is about five times more expensive to set up a deposit system," said Michel Quentin, an environmental adviser to the SAQ.
"The SAQ is totally for collecting as many bottles as possible, but we must take into account the consumers' ability to pay," Quentin said.
He said the SAQ contributes about $2 million a year to municipal recycling programs, and will invest $250,000 a year for the next five years on research into uses for recycled glass.
The SAQ estimates that a deposit-return program would boost the rate of recuperation to only 72 per cent or 75 per cent from 60 per cent.
"Again the question is: Is the consumer ready to assume that cost, just to get 10 per cent" more bottles recycled? he asked.
He said the SAQ would rather see the government require hotels, bars and banquet halls - which account for about 18 per cent of SAQ sales - recycle their wine bottles, a move that could improve the recuperation rate without costing the consumer money.
But Michel Seguin of RE-buts, a coalition of Quebec environment groups concerned with ecological management of waste, said the SAQ is grasping at excuses for not introducing a deposit-return program.
"First, a deposit-return system is not more expensive for society. We just pay in other ways" when we waste reusable resources, he said.
He said it is not the consumer or the taxpayer who should pay for a deposit-return system, but the producer of the product. Neither wine producers nor the SAQ are covering anything near the cost of recycling the packaging they introduce into the environment, he said.
Seguin would like to see Quebec introduce a deposit-refund system for all beverage containers.
Wine made or bottled in Quebec, he said, should be in uniform bottles that could be returned to the producers and re-used, like beer bottles.
"We have to give the consumer an environmental choice that costs less," he said.
Seguin accused Premier Jean Charest's Liberal government of doing little to move Quebec toward its stated goal of recovering 65 per cent of recuperable waste by 2008.
"This government is not in control of waste management," he said.
"Virtually the only thing they've done (related to waste management) since they've been in power is authorize the expansion of landfill sites."
mlalonde@thegazette.canwest.com
© The Gazette (Montreal) 2007
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