allison hanes: forget about that rebate from your bottles of holiday booze
the latest delay in the glacial rollout of quebec's deposit returns program is downright embarrassing, and entirely predictable.
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if you were hoping to save up all your empty wine or champagne bottles from the holidays and return them this spring for a 25-cent rebate, you now run the risk of becoming a hoarder. that’s because the next phase in the glacial rollout of quebec’s long-promised deposit returns program has been delayed yet again, pushed back to 2027 from the planned launch date of march 2025.
the quebec government announced the latest postponement at the end of november when environment minister benoit charette also revealed he has ordered up an administrative audit of the association québécoise de récupération des contenants de boissons (aqrcb), the organization in charge of enlarging the consignment strategy to include all beverage containers.
turns out after five years of work, the aqrcb is nowhere close to being able to handle the five billion glass wine bottles, plastic water containers and milk cartons it is supposed to be responsible for collecting each year.
so in the blue bin the glass must stay — with much of it likely to get smashed to smithereens and gum up the machinery at sorting centres, one of the key reasons quebec has been looking for better ways to dispose of empties.
sadly, this is entirely predictable. this is now the third time the expansion of the deposit returns system has been deferred. it was first supposed to launch in the fall of 2022. that start date was pushed back to the spring of 2023. last year it was delayed until march 2025. now it seems we’ll have to wait until 2027.
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it’s hugely disappointing given the urgency of reforming the way we deal with waste in our consumer-oriented single-use society, be it takeout containers, coffee cups or plastic water bottles. as landfills fill up and municipal recycling programs falter, the consignment program is intended to double the volume of beverage containers that are sorted and recycled efficiently in quebec.
it’s downright embarrassing how far behind we’ve fallen, given almost every other province and territory in canada has a functioning returns program — and has for decades.
british columbia first set up consignment in 1970 and has updated it twice — in 2004 to accept all beverage containers and in 2022 to take packages for milk and milk substitutes. alberta has had deposit returns since 1997, and also introduced canada’s first refunds for milk cartons back in 2008. saskatchewan has had a program since 1973.
ontario has offered rebates for wine bottles brought back to its beer stores since 2007.
prince edward island has had a system since 2008, new brunswick’s dates to 1992 and nova scotia launched one in 1996, as did newfoundland and labrador.
quebecers have been able to return beer bottles to the local dépanneur for decades, as well as get pocket change for soda cans. but by the time we can finally take back our wine bottles, we’ll be 20 years behind ontario, which was actually one of the most recent provinces to implement rebates.
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so far, the aqrcb’s only achievement has been modest. since nov. 1, 2023, quebecers have been able to return all sizes of aluminum cans for a 10-cent refund at grocery stores and other outlets where they were already being collected. with this five-cent increase in the refund and the inclusion of slender and king sizes, the goal was to incentivize the return of an additional 300 million cans a year.
to process these, plus all the bottles, cartons and containers that were slated to become part of the program in march, the aqrcb was supposed to set up 400 new cosignaction drop-off points. that target was later chopped in half, then downgraded again. in reality, only about 20 new locations have opened — far from enough.
la presse last week exposed some of the numerous problems plaguing the aqrcb. these include centralization of decision making; antagonism with the government, particularly charette; a lack of transparency; poorly designed returns outlets; partners left in the dark about next steps, as well as contracts for transportation that were too short in the first place and are set to run out in a matter of months.
the government’s decision to order the administrative audit seems wise, if only to get to the bottom of this fiasco. under the circumstances, there is no choice but to push back the next phase of consignment until 2027.
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but it’s still an unsatisfying development in a saga that raises a lot of if-onlys and what-ifs about the conception of the strategy.
perhaps quebec shouldn’t have tried to do everything all at once and focused on what was important: wine bottles, which pose a particular problem to municipal recycling programs. when thrown in the blue bin and mixed up with other materials, the potential for breakage is high, which results in the contamination of other waste streams. when this occurs, lots of stuff that is supposed to get refashioned gets dumped in the landfill instead. at one point, the proportion of glass being recycled in quebec dropped to 14 per cent. it has since rebounded to over 40 per cent.
but a dedicated system to separate and triage glass could go a long way to making sure it is properly dealt with. glass is, after all, one of the most recyclable materials in the world. it can be melted down and repurposed an infinite number of times. we even have a plant that can do it, right here in montreal. yet it has to import bottles from outside quebec for its operations.
perhaps the government shouldn’t have let the société des alcools du québec off the hook. it alone sells 200 million bottles of wine and booze each year. the biggest hurdle to a returns program over the years has always been the saq’s reticence to take back the empties itself. but setting up a whole new infrastructure for people to drop off beverage containers and get their payouts has proved to be the achilles heel of the new consignment plan.
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of course, going back to the drawing board now would only delay things further. so we’re stuck with a program that bit off more than it could chew and is now struggling to play catch-up.
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