By Karen Wirsig, Senior Program Manager, Plastics. Environmental Defence
October 20th, 2025
BURLINGTON, ON
The Ontario deposit-return program (ODRP) is hugely successful at enabling refill and recycling of beer containers, and recycling of glass bottles for wine and spirits.
Unfortunately, due to the closure of Beer Store locations—which have served as return locations for alcohol empties since the program was established in 2007—the ODRP was at risk of collapse. The convenient and popular program has kept millions of glass, metal and plastic containers out of landfills, incinerators and the natural environment.
The Beer Stores were taking in the returns and refunding deposits that had been paid.
By the end of the year, The Beer Store will have closed some 100 locations. The grocery retailers whose licenses to sell ready-to-drink alcohol currently require them to accept empties have been slow to meet that condition. That means people in Ontario are losing access to return points. Government enforcement of the grocery obligations will be welcome news to those people who pay deposits when they buy alcoholic beverages but can’t easily return the empties to redeem their deposits.
What’s more, grocery retailers who accept empties could help build out Ontario’s deposit-return system to include non-alcoholic beverages, making it more efficient and allowing for improved recycling rates for non-alcoholic beverage containers. Ontario is one of only two provinces in the country that does not have a program for most beverages. As a result, we estimate that some 1.7 billion plastic containers for drinks like water, pop and juice end up in the garbage or the environment every year in Ontario. This has to stop.
This can be prevented. It’s killing us.
This is an ideal moment to expand the deposit-return system to include both alcoholic and non-alcoholic empties and the government must lead the way on saving and expanding deposit return.
ABOUT ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENCE (environmentaldefence.ca): Environmental Defence is a leading Canadian environmental advocacy organization that works with government, industry and individuals to defend clean water, a safe climate and healthy communities.
The 5 cents you get per bottle/can is not worth my gas.
It all goes into the blue box
Editor’s note: The issue isn’t the nickel – the issues is recycling. The blue box doesn’t recycle – it takes junk to the dump.
The environment – the air you breath, the air your children breath and the air your grandchildren breath. It isn’t going to be the same as the air you have been breathing. And if you don’t understand that – there is no hope for any of us.
Why has the LCBO been given an exemption when it comes to RDOP?
Why can we not just put them in the blue box to be recycled? Then no need for the deposit program.
Editor’s note: People want to recover the deposit – and blue box goes to the dump. The bottles can be recycled a number of times.