This article on Ontario’s beverage container recovery program concludes the series on Canada’s provincial programs. Like Manitoba, Ontario municipalities rely solely on their curbside program to recover beverage containers.
Though established in 1986 it was only in 1992 that the provincial government passed a regulation mandating the municipal provision of “Blue Box” collection. The 3Rs regulations mandate that municipalities with over 5,000 people set up a curbside collection program to recover materials including aluminum, steel, PET plastic and glass containers, and newsprint.
Also on the books (but not enforced) are the soft-drink regulations (reg. 340 and 357) from 1985, which mandate a 30 per cent refillable market share. Today, refillable soft drinks account for less than 2 per cent of sales in Ontario.
As with other provinces, Ontario brewers manage their own containers through a comprehensive return-to-retail deposit-refund program (with depots in rural areas). In Ontario, 98 per cent of all beer containers sold through the privately owned Beer Store retail chain and through the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO) are recovered for reuse and recycling.
