 Beverage Container Product Category
Regulatory History
When the Litter Act was enacted in 1970, British Columbia became the first jurisdiction in North America to establish a mandatory deposit-refund system for soft drink and beer containers as a litter control initiative. The success of this approach was recognized by other jurisdictions in Canada and the United States , many of which followed B.C.'s lead by enacting similar legislation.
Over time, the beverage industry expanded dramatically to include products and container types not envisioned under the Litter Act, and significant numbers of beverage containers again were entering landfills and the litter stream, at considerable taxpayer expense. By the mid-1980s, local governments began to petition the province for relief from the burden of litter clean-up and from the cost of managing used beverage containers in landfills and municipal recycling programs.
In response to long-term and ongoing local government concerns, the province enacted the Beverage Container Stewardship Program Regulation (1997), which replaced the Litter Act. The regulation achieves fairness for taxpayers by requiring all beverage brand-owners of ready-to-drink beverages — with the exception of milk, milk substitutes, liquid-meal replacements and infant formula — to establish a province-wide return collection system for beverage containers, under a deposit-refund system. The regulation established the goal of a minimum 85 percent recovery rate and requires that redeemed containers be either refilled or recycled.
This regulation has now been repealed and most of its provisions are now in Schedule 1 of the Recycling Regulation. This regulation required existing stewardship agencies to submit revised plans consistent with the regulation within two years of its enactment.
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