New Deposits May Keep More Milk Containers Out of Alberta Landfills

In less than 2 weeks Albertans will be paying refundable deposits and non-refundable container recycling fees on milk and other dairy containers as part of an effort to increase recovery rates for those containers. Deposits are an effective way of encouraging the recycling of beverage containers, and it is anticipated that the 10-cent and 25-cent deposits on milk containers will ultimately help increase the recovery rate of these containers to the provincial goal of 85% of containers sold.

Deposits are only one factor in the decision to recycle, and no doubt a comprehensive effort is needed to educate and encourage consumers to return and recycle containers, including milk containers. Container recovery rates for 2006 through 2008 hovered well below the provincial goal at about 75%. Without including milk containers, this means about 500 million containers a year are not recovered. This was lower than recovery rates in Alberta in 2003 through 2005, where rates in excess of 80% were reached.

Factors such as a greater variety and number of containers being sold, more beverages being consumed outside the home, consumer dissatisfaction with the depot return experience and in some parts of Alberta, inconvenient access to depots are all cited as contributing to reduced recovery rates. New deposits and increased deposits may assist consumers in making the choice to recycle where it may otherwise be inconvenient to do so, but it is more likely deposits are only one part of a more comprehensive scheme to bring consumers on side and address some of those factors known to contribute to reduced recovery rates.

Last October, the government of Alberta increased deposits on other beverage containers for the first time in 20 years. While it may be too early to tell, it will be interesting to see the impact of the increased deposits on recovery rates for containers already in the system.