{"id":537754,"date":"2026-01-23T19:53:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T19:53:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/537754\/"},"modified":"2026-01-23T19:53:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T19:53:10","slug":"the-power-of-putting-a-price-on-trash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/537754\/","title":{"rendered":"The power of putting a price on trash"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Garbage, which was put out for pickup on the incorrect day, lays on the ground next to recycling bins that were collected by sanitation workers in Montreal in June, 2025.Christopher Katsarov\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

Ontario has a pitiful record for recycling beverage containers. There\u2019s a simple reason why: unlike most provinces, Ontario has no deposit system for non-alcoholic beverage containers. <\/p>\n

Only 46 per cent of non-refillable containers for non-alcoholic beverages in the province are recycled<\/a>, compared with 79 per cent for alcoholic non-refillables. In other provinces where both alcoholic and non-alcoholic containers have deposits, recycling rates are around 80 per cent.<\/p>\n

A successful deposit-return program would significantly reduce the 1.7 billion plastic containers from Ontario that end up in the landfill or incinerator or become litter every year. Without change, Ontario is unlikely to hit its target<\/a> to recycle or refill 80 per cent of its non-alcoholic empties. <\/b>Ontario\u2019s recycling programs are currently undergoing significant change, so it\u2019s an opportune moment to expand the deposit-return system. <\/p>\n

Deposit programs are the gold standard for encouraging reuse and recycling. Just like Ontario\u2019s alcohol deposit return system, the promise of getting the 10 or 20 cents that was paid upon purchase would motivate consumers to return their bottles and cans to designated locations, instead of putting them in the blue box, trash, or abandoning them in a park or on the street. The waste-pickers that scour our parks and ditches would also be keen to collect and return these containers. <\/p>\n

Opinion: Recycling won\u2019t solve our planet-killing plastic-pollution problem<\/a><\/p>\n

Ontario recently switched its system for picking up recyclables \u2013 instead of municipalities, it\u2019s now overseen by Circular Materials, a not-for-profit run by producers of packaging waste, such as McDonald\u2019s and Pepsi. The aim is to spur producers to make materials that are easier to recycle. It\u2019s far from certain<\/a> that the new convoluted system will boost recycling rates, whereas deposit programs have proven results. <\/p>\n

The province was considering expanding its deposit program for non-alcohol beverage containers in 2024, when it suddenly abandoned its plans<\/a>, upsetting environmentalists and the beverage industry, which supported the expansion.<\/a> The Ontario government said an expanded deposit program would bring increased costs for consumers, although the bigger issue was likely grocery stores\u2019 concerns about having to accept beverage containers \u2013 they didn\u2019t want to carve out space to sort \u201cdirty\u201d containers. <\/p>\n

Similarly, under Premier Doug Ford\u2019s plan to expand alcohol sales, grocery stores with a licence to sell alcohol were expected to collect empties. A deal announced<\/a> in November allowed them to get out of that obligation, and instead, they are paying the Beer Store to accept alcohol containers. <\/p>\n

The current deal helps The Beer Store, but Ontario\u2019s alcohol deposit system, which has operated out of the Beer Store since 1927 and boasts<\/a> a 95 per cent return rate on refillable bottles, has been severely weakened. (The Beer Store started accepting all alcohol containers in 2007.) As part of Ontario\u2019s plan to open up alcohol sales, around 120 Beer Stores have closed<\/a>, and there\u2019s no guarantee the rest will stay open. <\/p>\n

The government now aims to ensure most Ontarians have a point of recycling<\/a> within 10 kilometres, twice the distance of the previous 5-kilometre goal. Markham, Ont., for example, has just one place<\/a> to return empties for its 350,000 residents after the closure of two Beer Stores. Many people won\u2019t make the longer trek, particularly people without cars, which will lower recycling rates. <\/p>\n

Instead of letting the successful alcohol deposit system erode, it could be strengthened by adding deposits for bottled water, soft drinks and juice containers. This bigger stream of materials would make it more viable for businesses to accept containers, and would give producers a relatively clean supply of aluminium and PET bottles that are easier to recycle. <\/p>\n

Grocers should be pushed to reconsider taking returns. In other jurisdictions, after several years, the systems have been financially self-sustaining. These stores will find that customers coming in with containers are likely to pick up new items, driving sales. In Quebec and other places, independent operators have successfully installed<\/a> \u201creverse vending machines\u201d to take back containers. These can be housed inside stores or in parking lots, or operate in standalone stores. <\/p>\n

The government should act quickly to expand the deposit system, and boost places to return containers. The logistical problems are real, but if the government has the will, it will find solutions, and will soon be able to match the other provinces on their beverage container recycling rates. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Garbage, which was put out for pickup on the incorrect day, lays on…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":537755,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[2148,2138,671,104,2132,692,2147,2131,2143,2144,2140,2133,2130,79,407,746,2142,2137,2159,2134,2135,454,2139,1165,728,2149,108,2154,2155,2157,2152,2156,2150,2153,2136,85,2146,80,2145,2151,159,1458,158,1164,2141,67,132,68,1154,107,2158],"class_list":{"0":"post-537754","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-alberta","9":"tag-arts-news","10":"tag-bc","11":"tag-breaking-news","12":"tag-breaking-news-video","13":"tag-british-columbia","14":"tag-canada","15":"tag-canada-news","16":"tag-canada-sports","17":"tag-canada-sports-news","18":"tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","19":"tag-canadian-breaking-news","20":"tag-canadian-news","21":"tag-economy","22":"tag-education","23":"tag-environment","24":"tag-federal-government","25":"tag-foreign-news","26":"tag-globe-and-mail","27":"tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","28":"tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","29":"tag-government","30":"tag-life-news","31":"tag-lifestyle","32":"tag-local-news","33":"tag-manitoba","34":"tag-national-news","35":"tag-new-brunswick","36":"tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","37":"tag-northwest-territories","38":"tag-nova-scotia","39":"tag-nunavut","40":"tag-ontario","41":"tag-pei","42":"tag-photos","43":"tag-political-news","44":"tag-political-opinion","45":"tag-politics","46":"tag-politics-news","47":"tag-quebec","48":"tag-science","49":"tag-sports-news","50":"tag-technology","51":"tag-travel","52":"tag-trudeau","53":"tag-united-states","54":"tag-unitedstates","55":"tag-us","56":"tag-us-news","57":"tag-world-news","58":"tag-yukon"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/537754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=537754"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/537754\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/537755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=537754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=537754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=537754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}