mber 18, 1992 letter to Council, (Attachmenz 1) Dan Wong, Chairman ot

alition, asked Council to write to the Minister of Environment, Lands and

_Packs frequesting that the Minister grant approval for the Coalition to undertake 2

--—— “Seliay of this proposed system.
~ 22m 3O

A second proposal from the Brewery. Winery and Cistillery Workers - Loc. 1300

supports refillable beverage container legislation. In a December 21, 1992 letter,

(Attachment 2) Tom Smith, President of the Brewery Workers asks that Council

consider adopting a motion in support of the legislation. put forth by the Brewery

Workers. The BC Government Employees’ Union also supports this legislation. Ina

January 4, 1993 letter, (Attachment 3) John T. Shieids. President of the BC GEU

has asked Council to place the draft legislation on the agenda of a council meeting

and to consider adopting a motion of support for refillable beverage container
legislation for the Province of BC. °

The government has now made a decision on the conceptual design of a new
beverage container strategy and has asked the Environment Ministry to provide the
government with details for implementing an expanded deposit-refund system and
to involve industry in the analysis of this option and other altematives which will
minimize costs to industry and consumers. (Attachment 4)

ANALYSIS:

For more than 20 years British Columbians have paid a deposit on beer and soft
drink containers. Recent complaints have been that the current system is too
narrow and should be expanded to include all beverage containers. !n addition,
there are concerns that refunds ara sometimes difficult to obtain: for example,
most stores have a limit on how many containers they will accept: they will not
accept containers bottled or canned outside of BC; bottle depots will not take back
pop cans.

The Ministry responded to soncems by inviting suggestions from the public and
other stakeholders about how to ams the system. Local and ragional
governments, the Municipal Waste Branch of the Environment Ministry and other
environmental groups want to see deposits maintained.

The Beverage industry Coalition prefers to see deposits eliminated in favour of a
user pay system that would eliminate deposits on non-refillable beverage containers
and expand curbside collection programs as well ag commercial collection programs
for businesses and institutions. The Coalition approached the Ministry last tall and
requested that the Ministry delay making any decisions on changing deposit
legislation until such time as it (the Coalition) had’ completed its own study. The
Ministry had no objection nor did the GVRD but this study was not done.

The December 18, 1992 letter from the Coalition does not include any -new
information or proposals and the GVRD Solid Waste Management Committee at its
January 12, 1993 meeting just tabled the new correspondence as information.

Ta-S!