The deployment of the deposit has sand in the gears and delays in the delivery of return locations are accumulating. The Minister of the Environment is growing impatient, but has nevertheless decided to reduce the number of sites which will have to collect the containers.
The extension of the instructions will come into force on March 1. As soon as this deployment, your grocery bill will increase to include the deposit on plastic water bottles, multi-layers such as pints of milk and bottles of wine and spirits.
Citizens will be able to return containers to retailers who sell these products as well as to return locations.
However, these places are becoming rare a few months before deployment. Only 15 return centers are ready out of the 200 which should be opened next March. Not to mention that many retailers believe they do not have the space required to accommodate the deposits.
“The message we are sending is the following. It is not the government of Quebec which operates the deposit system, it is not it which is responsible for its implementation. So, both producers and retailers are told: we must speed up. We are getting closer to March 1st. We are at 15 open locations, this is completely unacceptable. And for me, these are added details that are unacceptable,” said the Minister of the Environment, Benoît Charette.
It is the Quebec Association for the Recovery of Beverage Containers (AQRCB), which brings together all the producers and brand holders involved in recovery, which must carry out the recovery of the deposit.
Due to the delays, the minister decided to relax some rules. For example, the number of return locations that was required will increase from 1500 to 1200 sites.
Binding measures
In addition, Quebec will allow food retailers to establish return locations even further from their business than had been planned.
“I understand that there are challenges, we are talking about 5 billion containers per year,” explained Mr. Charette. “But it’s up to them to take on this new start and ensure that the system is ready on March 1st.
The minister is also issuing a warning to retailers and producers: he could strengthen his regulations to force obligations on return locations.
“I am responsible for the results, if the results do not look convincing, the Quebecer who has paid his deposit will have the right to be reimbursed for the amount paid. If there are concerns at this level, I will strengthen the regulations if necessary to make them more restrictive to force obligations on places of return, distance, this is the type of reinforcement that could be done. This morning, we took a first step,” he said.
Is a further postponement possible? “I don’t work with that scenario,” he said.
Remember that the deployment of the extension of the deposit was planned for fall 2022. It was first postponed to spring 2023, before being postponed until March 1, 2025.
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