The Beer Store’s deposit-return program for alcoholic beverages has saved 203,914 tons of avoided greenhouse gas emissions. There were plans to expand the program to include non-alcoholic beverages which would have forced polluting companies to be accountable for the waste they were creating.
That is until the Ford government canceled the program.
Deposit-return programs are proven to successfully divert bottles and cans from our landfills, lakes and parks. That’s why almost every other province already has one in place.
Ontario’s existing recycling program has major shortcomings, diverting less than 50 percent of non-alcoholic beverages. Meanwhile, the alcoholic beverage deposit-return programs we already have in place have success rates of 70 to 80 percent.
This should be a no-brainer for the Ford government. But once again, the Premier has proven he is more concerned with keeping big corporations happy than helping out ordinary Ontarians.
Greens are writing to Doug Ford to call on his government to follow the rest of Canada and implement a deposit-return program for all beverages.
Will you join us?