We need to make sure Ontario’s new environment minister, Andrea Khanjin, gets the message that she must finish the job of introducing a deposit-return program for non-alcoholic beverage containers. This program is essential to reduce plastic pollution in Ontario. 

Deposit-return systems — where consumers return their empties to the store for a refund of the deposit they paid when they bought the beverage — keep billions of plastic bottles from being landfilled, incinerated and littered each year.

In Ontario, deposit-return would reduce waste going to the landfill by 100,000 tonnes per year, and litter by 8,000 tonnes per year. 

In part due to pressure from Ontarians like you, the provincial government struck an industry working group to design a deposit-return program. Now we need to make sure this group stays on track to deliver a program Ontarians deserve.

Ask Andrea Khanjin to ensure an effective deposit-return program for non-alcoholic beverage containers as soon as possible. This program should…

1. Be operated and funded by beverage producers with high targets for collection and recycling or reuse of the containers.
2. Ensure consumers can return empties to their local retail stores and other convenient locations to redeem their deposit. 
3. Include a meaningful deposit 
4. Be fully transparent with publicly-accessible system data.

Send a message to Andrea Khanjin to keep the momentum going to introduce an affordable and transparent deposit-return program.

 

Your letter will go to the Environment Minister Andrea Khanjin, Premier Doug Ford, and the Ontario Minister of Natural Resources and Forestry John Yakabuski

Read more about deposit returns in our blog “Industry’s “Recycle Everywhere” Program Would Cost Twice as Much and Deliver Far Less than Deposit Return”