What A Pipe Dream

I have already made known my opinion of this program but I am not a beer drinker so does McGinty and the environuts really think I am going to drive a couple of miles to get 20 cents......they will go into the blue box. Let the city look after disposal rather than me spend additional money for gas and in the process impact on greenhouse gas emmisions. Personally I think this is just another way the government has of dealing with homelessness.

Editorial: Progress on recycling
Dec. 4, 2006. 01:00 AM

Many Ontarians are already stocking their bars for the swirl of cocktail parties and family gatherings that mark the coming holiday season.

But in the morning-after cleanup, too few revellers will ensure that their empty wine and liquor containers make it into recycling bins, where they belong.

To our shame, one-third of bottles purchased at government-owned liquor stores wind up in garbage dumps. Half of plastic containers and aluminum cans and 75 per cent of Tetra Pak wine boxes sold at these stores meet the same fate. With strong recycling programs in municipalities across Ontario, such environmental laziness is inexcusable.

So the government's plan to charge a deposit on wine and spirit containers sold at Liquor Control Board of Ontario stores starting in February is a welcome move that should make Ontarians think twice about pitching their empties into the trash.

Queen's Park officials estimate the deposits, which will add between 10 and 20 cents to the purchase price depending on the size of the container, could boost recycling rates by as much as 38 per cent.

As many communities struggle to dispose of growing piles of garbage, this is exactly the sort of incentive the province should champion to reduce waste and encourage diversion.

To that end, hopefully the new deposit system can accomplish what education and moral suasion so far have not.

To handle the returns, the provincial government has turned to an undisputed expert. Brewers' Retail Inc., a chain of retail outlets owned by Labatt, Molson and Sleeman and more commonly known as The Beer Store, boasts impressive return rates of 96 per cent for refillable bottles and 90 per cent for aluminum cans.

Under a five-year contract, the province will pay The Beer Store 10 cents for every container to collect LCBO empties.

In the first year alone, it expects Ontarians to return a total of 150 million containers, or about 25 per cent of the 600 million sold by the LCBO last year, to The Beer Store locations across the province.

The government wants to recover 85 per cent of such containers by the year 2010.

True, Ontario is glaringly late to this party. Most provinces already have deposit-return systems for liquor and wine containers. Some even collect deposits on soft-drink containers and water bottles.

There is every reason for Ontario to follow their lead, both to help the environment and reduce the burden of recycling on municipalities.

But in the meantime, we all must do whatever we can to reduce waste.

That's why Ontarians should give this environmentally progressive step their full support.