People in Ontario are quickly losing places to return their empty alcohol containers. That makes it more difficult to get back the deposits we pay when we buy booze. It also makes it much more likely that these containers end up in the garbage.
In his rush to expand sales of alcohol in corner stores and grocery outlets, Premier Doug Ford failed to protect one of the province’s most successful recycling programs — deposit-return for alcoholic beverages. You can likely buy beer and wine in a grocery store near you, but you very likely cannot take your empties back there.
That’s because the province has allowed hundreds of stores to sell alcohol without requiring them to accept empties right away. Since last October, when alcohol sales expanded, only 70 grocery stores were required to start taking back containers. Astoundingly, the government has reported that only 13 of them are actually doing it. That means the government is letting 80 per cent of these stores get away with violating the terms of their license by refusing our empties.