Beverage Containers | Why is the instruction delayed, and why an investigation?

False start for the expansion of the deposit on beverage containers. Again. For the second time, Thursday, Quebec resigned itself to partially postponing its reform. And to trigger an investigation into the organization responsible for implementing it. Here's what you need to remember.

What will be recorded and what will not?

All plastic ready-to-drink beverage bottles from 100 milliliters to 2 liters, such as water, juice and milk bottles, will be deposited as scheduled starting January 1^is March 2025. The amount of the deposit will be 10 cents. Containers already deposited will remain: all aluminum cans as well as glass bottles of beer and soft drinks. The postponement announced Thursday concerns other glass bottles, notably those of wine and spirits, as well as multi-layer containers, such as those for milk and juice. Depositing glass requires equipment different from that currently found in the majority of businesses that take back containers, while depositing milk containers presents health issues. Quebec is now targeting 2027 for their subjection to the deposit.

Read the article “Deposit on beverage containers: Quebec launches an investigation and postpones its reform”

Why did the government make this decision?

At the rate things were going, it had become clear that enlargement would be a catastrophe, on 1^is March. The accumulated delays in the opening of Consignaction return locations and in the orders of equipment for food businesses which will continue to take back returnable containers would inevitably have meant that the public would have had difficulty getting a refund of the deposit paid on the new containers. “This is what we wanted to avoid,” explained the Minister of the Environment, the Fight against Climate Change, Wildlife and Parks, Benoit Charette, in an interview with The Press. From some 400 Consignaction branches originally planned, the target had been reduced to 200, then to less than a hundred, earlier this fall, and everything indicated that there would ultimately be only around thirty ready. in time for the 1^is March, said Mr. Charette.

Who is the target of an investigation and what is the objective?

This is the Quebec Association for the Recovery of Beverage Containers (AQRCB), an organization created by stakeholders in the beverage industry to manage the Legault government's deposit reform, under the principle of “extended responsibility producers” (REP). Its board of directors includes representatives from Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Keurig Dr Pepper, Sleeman, the Quebec Brewers Association, Lassonde, Agropur and the Société des alcools du Québec. The AQRCB is the heir of Boissons Gazeuses Environnement (BGE), which managed the deposit system before the reform; it took over its premises and its staff. Quebec criticizes the AQRCB for having lacked transparency and having failed to comply with various regulatory obligations, in addition to accumulating delays. The investigation will allow the government to know “the flaws” which undermined the implementation of its reform, by giving it legal access to documents held by the AQRCB.

How did we get there?

“It was written in the sky,” exclaims Karel Ménard, general director of the Quebec Common Front for Ecological Waste Management, who has long campaigned for the modernization of the deposit system. “The government has not shown enough diligence in this matter,” he believes, pointing out the fact that the historic obstruction of beverage companies should have encouraged Quebec to provide its regulations with mechanisms aimed at preventing the “strategies [et] delaying tactics. The postponement does not surprise waste management expert Amélie Côté either. “The industry's commitment to arriving on time was insufficient,” she said. However, it has been almost five years since it was announced. » The Legault government actually announced in February 2020 a reform of the deposit system on beverage containers. The AQRCB was entrusted with management in October 2022, which already managed the previous system when it was called BGE.