The Canadian province of Quebec is planning to double the deposit on drinks containers from 5 cents to 10 cents from January 2013, the first increase since the deposit was introduced in 1984. Government agency Recyc-Québec (www.recyc-quebec.gouv.qc.ca) said the increase will include deposits paid on beer and soft drink containers smaller than 450 ml and include containers made in aluminium, glass and PET. Containers larger than 450 ml will continue to have a 20 cent deposit.

The increase will assist retailers that collect returned bottles and cans by freeing up more money for the government to support them in the deposit scheme. At present, a two cent handling fee is paid to retailers from unredeemed deposits, according to a report by Canada’s national public broadcaster CBC News. The report said that Quebec's Association of Independent Retailers is hoping the government will also double their share to four cents per container.

In a statement, Quebec’s minister for sustainable development, environment and parks, Pierre Arcand, said: “By updating the deposit system we will improve the recovery rate of containers and pursue efforts for a greener, cleaner and more sustainable Quebec. Countries and progressive states such as Sweden, Australia, California and New York have already gone in this direction.”

Steven Guilbeault, co-founder and deputy executive-director of Montreal, Quebec-based ecological organisation Équiterre, (www.equiterre.org/en) said: “In other provinces, they are even increasing the cost of deposit to 20 cents for certain containers, so the fact that we’re only at 10 cents — it’s not placing Quebec at the forefront."

CBC reported that the Retail Council of Canada (Toronta, Ontario; www.retailcouncil.org) had said the deposit hike would only drive up costs for retailers, without doing much to help the environment.

Many bottles are not returned as Quebec has a recycling system allowing consumers to place containers in a box at home for collection for recycling, but outside the deposit system.

The industry group representing soft drink bottlers – Association des embouteilleurs de boissons gazeuses du Québec – said that the deposit increase is not in the best interest of consumers, the industry or the environment, adding that nearly 74% of beverage containers is now recovered, higher than the government’s target of 70%. It called for consultation and for the government to look at alternatives to a deposit increase.

According to Boissons Gazeuses Environnement (BGE, Saint-Laurent, Québec; www.bge-quebec.com/en), a non-profit organisation created by the Quebec soft drink industry, 215m plastic bottles, along with 708m aluminium containers and 5m glass bottles, weighing around 22,290 t, were collected in 2010. Annually, the soft-drink bottlers, through BGE, invest approximately CAD 2m (EUR 1.6m) in programmes to improve the recovery infrastructure as well as awareness programmes. BGE also said that 400m deposit containers are still being discarded annually in waste in Quebec, representing around CAD 20m (EUR 15.6m) in unredeemed deposits.

A report from recycling specialist CM Consulting (Peterborough, Ontario; www.cmconsultinginc.com), “Who pays what 2010 – an analysis of beverage container recovery and costs in Canada”, provides an in-depth review of recycling performance, recovery rates, deposits and much more across Canadian provinces. For example, the province of Alberta increased the level of its deposits from 5 cents to 10 cents, and 20 cents to 25 cents in November 2008. After 11 months it reported an increase in total recovery rate from 76% to 81%. And in Northwest Territories, in February 2010, the province’s programme was expanded to include all milk and liquid milk products, including milk jugs, milk and milk substitute cartons, yogurt drink bottles, condensed or evaporated milk cans, boxed milk substitutes and creamer bottles.

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“Who pays what 2010 – an analysis of beverage container recovery and costs in Canada” as a PDF document