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Changes made to province’s Return-It program affect beverage container refund rates

Some changes have occurred at the Kimberley Bottle Depot, and at Return-It Recycling Depots across B.C. which impact how much you get back for your bottles and cans.
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Some changes have occurred at the Kimberley Bottle Depot, and at Return-It Recycling Depots across B.C. which impact how much you get back for your bottles and cans.

As of October 1, Return-It decreased the deposit value for all beverage containers that are over one litre from 20 cents down to ten cents.

They did not make a change to the return value of containers that are one litre and under.

“Everything’s ten cents now instead of containers larger than one litre were 20 cents before, so across the board it’s ten cents,” said Wayne Collins, who owns the Bottle Depot alongside his wife Bev. “That’s a big change.”

The change came into effect on October 1, but Return-It allowed for a transition period for customers to receive the 20 cent refunds until October 11.

Collins said that he hasn’t heard that many complaints or concerns from his customers, and thinks that’s partially because of how well they advertised these changes on Facebook, plus the October 1 to 11 transition period they provided.

This change impacts Return-It depots province wide, but another six-month pilot program is also currently underway at select locations, including Kimberley affecting how aluminum drink containers are recycled.

The aim of the program was to make trips to the Bottle Depot more quick and efficient, allowing customers to not have to separate pop cans from beer cans.

This pilot program was launched on July 6 and will expire in December 2020, and Collins said that so far, he’s had 100 per cent positive feedback from his customers.



paul.rodgers@kimberleybulletin

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