CONSUMERS may have to haul more than just their sticky pop cans and rancid beer bottles back to the store for a return on their deposit. Pretty soon, milk containers could be added to the list of refundable receptacles.
At Monday's council meeting, District of North Vancouver councillors voted in support of a staff recommendation to send a letter to the Minister of the Environment requesting that milk and milk-substitute beverage containers be added to the provincial deposit-refund system in order to encourage recycling efforts.
The decision to send the letter received support from most of council, but Couns. Roger Bassam and Mike Little warned that adding milk containers to the provincial deposit-refund system has the potential to turn sour.
"What this equates to is creating a massive inconvenience for the consumer, which then turns into a tax," said Bassam, who went on to question the value of the bottle deposit-refund system as a whole.
"Ultimately the goal is not revenue, but recycling," said Bassam, who suggested streamlining the recycling process for residents by maintaining only the curb-side, or blue box, recycling system. "If we are ever going to send a letter, it should be to get rid of the nickel deposits and get us down to a single-stream, where we can actually do some real recycling."
Little, a father with four children, also voiced concerns over the financial burden the milk deposit would have on families. "It will only add a cost, particularly to young families," and a cost to the community, "when binners come through and take all the product out - and make a mess on my driveway."
"Frankly, the current system is working quite well," he added. "I don't think there is a need for this."
But, according to the staff report - that drew on statistics compiled by a not-for-profit product stewardship agency that manages a voluntary milk container take-back program for the dairy industry - the current recovery rate of milk and milk substitute containers is less than 10 per cent, compared to nearly 80 per cent for beverage containers part of the depositrefund system.
In 2009, Alberta became the first jurisdiction to introduce a deposit on all milk and liquid-cream beverage containers, and, according to the district's staff report, the prairie province has witnessed a considerable jump in milk container recovery rates.
"If people are buying a lot of milk, I don't think it's such a hardship to take the containers back to the store in the first place," said Coun. Robin Hicks, who voted in favour of sending the letter to the Minister of the Environment and jested that council consider allowing residents to keep dairy cows in their backyards to escape the high price of milk controlled by the B.C. Milk Marketing Board.
If the district's proposal is adopted by the provincial government, the curb-side recycling program would not be affected and milk jugs would continue to be accepted.
Similar reports were also submitted to City of North Vancouver and District of West Vancouver councils.
