Public support for alcohol deposit return brings new hope for ending Ontario’s “trashy” approach to empty water bottles and pop cans
Thousands of people across the province are speaking up for Ontario’s existing deposit-return program for alcoholic beverages – and it looks like we’re being heard. Minister Bethlenfalvy has confirmed that large grocers who sell beer and wine must start accepting our empties.
The fact that people are buying more beer in grocery and convenience stores has led to the closure of dozens of Beer Store locations, which also served as the main return point for empties for more than a century. We need the big new alcohol retailers like Loblaw and Costco to step up and accept returns so we have convenient places to drop off our containers and redeem our deposits. This is the only way to continue preventing hundreds of millions of containers from becoming trash or litter every year.
But why stop at alcohol empties? Ontario was on the cusp of requiring deposit return for pop, juice and water empties back in 2024, but big grocery retailers lobbied against it. Then the government abandoned the deposit return working group. Now the government needs to push back against grocery retailer resistance and get back to work on an expanded deposit-return program for all empties.
Ontario has one of the worst track records in Canada for collection and refilling or recycling of beverage containers. It is high time for the government to implement a comprehensive deposit-return program for all types of beverages. If they can do it in Alberta, BC and Quebec, there is no reason we can’t do it in Ontario!
That’s why we need the government to keep standing up to the grocers and work with the companies that produce non-alcoholic beverages to deliver what Ontarians want: a comprehensive system that keeps all of our containers out of the trash and available for efficient refill or recycling.
TELL THE ONTARIO GOVERNMENT TO EXPAND DEPOSIT RETURN
There really is no viable alternative to a deposit-return system that covers both alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages. For decades, we’ve relied on the blue box recycling program to handle water bottles, pop cans and juice boxes. But that program has underperformed compared to provinces with effective deposit return… and now it’s getting more expensive and less likely to deliver on recycling targets. What’s more, the blue box program doesn’t capture the containers from the beverages we drink while we’re out and about – at a movie theatre, concert, ice rink or mall – while a deposit-return program would.
Deposit return also makes economic sense. Empties that come back to return points – from consumers and also waste pickers – are better sorted for more effective recycling or even refill. Producers who run deposit-return programs can then get their materials back to turn into new containers instead of trash.
Right now, beverage containers and waste criss-cross the Canada-US border, sometimes multiple times, leaving beverage companies exposed to tariffs and a worsening trade relationship, consumers vulnerable to higher prices for groceries, and landfills overflowing with recyclable plastic and aluminum. Improved recycling and refill programs also provide more local jobs than waste and litter.
Let’s put the billions of beverage containers wasted every year in Ontario to work for the environment, and for our communities.
