After decades of lobbying by municipalities, it sounds as if the Ontario government might - might - finally be considering holding its Liquor Control Board more accountable for the millions of tonnes of glass that get dumped into blue boxes every year.
Premier Dalton McGuinty mused yesterday about the possibility of creating a return-deposit system for liquor and wine bottles, which make up about 40 per cent of the glass that goes into recycling boxes in Peel now.
It’s about time. The difference between the bottle return system used at The Beer Store, which has its headquarters in Mississauga, and the throw-it-in the blue box mentality of the LCBO, is like the difference between Baby Duck and a classic, aged Bourdeau.
Unfortunately, we won’t be getting the superior Beer Store return-reuse system. That’s problematic at the LCBO, because so many wines are sold in bottles manufactured in other parts of the world. But we should get a system that will allow consumers to return bottles to their source of purchase (or The Beer Store if a proposed partnership reaches fruition.) Then they’ll be recycled.
It’s easy to get jaded about this prospect because it’s been floated lots of times before. With an election looming in October 2007, the fear is that expectations will be raised before that event, only to be dashed by inaction after.
Canada is far behind other parts of the world, and especially Europe, in requiring manufacturers to be responsible for the packaging they create.
Andrew Pollock, Peel’s director of waste management, is one of those who was reading the clippings furiously today.
“We already have a high capture rate of LCBO bottles in the blue box but it should be higher with a deposit return system,” he said.
One of the main problems with glass is that, “it’s so hard to handle because it breaks and causes a lot of wear and tear on the system,” said Pollock. “If we can take the LCBO glass out, we can improve the processing efficiency.”
When glass breaks, coloured and clear glass are mixed together, and new bottles can’t be made from it. It might come as a shock to know that only an estimated 20 per cent of waste bottles get recycled into new ones.
As a result there’s a glut of recycled mixed glass, for which municipalities are busily seeking markets. Peel, for instance, is looking to sell it for glass insulation.
In case you’re wondering, the Region’s new $35 million Material Recovery Facility in Brampton will not be rendered useless by this change, although it may have to be retooled slightly.
However, Peel may have to reopen the new five-year waste contract it just started a year ago because of this major change.
Those are minor inconveniences compared to the major benefit of making the LCBO take responsibility for disposal of the packaging for its products.
If it really happens, we can all open a guilt-free bottle of Veuve Clicquot champagne to celebrate, before we return it, of course.