The Brewery Workers proposal is significantly different from the Coalition's in that
its draft legislation provides for a deposit/refund system on refillable beverage
containers and a timetable for the complete phasing out of recyclable containers in
favour of refillable containers over a ten year period. Their proposed legislation aiso
levies an environmental fee on the use of any non-refillable beverage containers.
It should be noted that this proposal ccvers beverage containers for soft drinks,
beer, wine and liquor but does not include juice or milk containers.

Historically, non-deposit systems have not been as successful as deposit systems in
achieving high recavery rates. Jurisdictions using deposits and blue box programs
to recover used beverage containers are recovering an average of 80% of
containers targeted compared to 25%-30% recovery in Ontario with blue boxes
alone. These ranges do not include refillable bottles which are returned in rates of
25%-100% in all jurisdictions where they are sold including BC, which has had
refillable beer bottles for over 20 years.

Most environmentalists favour refillables as this emphasizes the first 2 R’s - Reduce
and Reuse. Refillable bottles have the Jowest environmental impact - much better
than single-use containers. Even with washing, refillable glass botties create fess
water-borne waste than any of the single-use containers. Technology is advancing
rapidly and the existence of a healthy refilling infrastructure preserves the
Opportunity to experiment with refillable PET plastic (pop bottles) which is serving
25 refills in European markets and polycarbonate plastic which is good for up to
100 refills.

Even though recycling does create employment opportunities in BC it is worth
noting the following facts about the material we collect:

1. Glass Even though they are technically recyclable at
, Consumers Glass in Lavington, BC, there is no real
market for the coioured glass and stringent quality
requirements make it too costly to ship clear glass
there. Some of our glass is being shipped to Seattle
but most municipalities are storing their collected glass
and looking at alternative uses.

2. Aluminum Cans There is a good market for the aluminum beverage
‘ containers but they are all shipped to Keniucky.

3. i¢ PET Bott These are transported for recycling to North Carolina.

Recycling industries tend to be integrated into the global economy in which BC is
likely to remain a fairly small player and therefore vulncrable to market fluctuations.

While deposit systems recover. a high -hercentage~ of nor refillable/single- use
containers, there still remains the chatlenge—of. ‘recycling ithe recovered waste
containers. Refillable containers greatly reduce the volume of wasté containers by
refilling the same container anywhere from 20-100 times. ;

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