Deposit values are changing!
Make sure to get your money’s worth!
September 25, 2020
Beverage Container Refund Changes at a Glance
Effective Oct 1, 2020 – you will be charged a 10 cent deposit on all refundable beverage containers at any retail store in BC.
Effective Oct 12, 2020 – BC recycling depots will refund you 10 cents on all beverage containers.
This unifies the deposit rate to 10 cents on all refundable containers, and will make your sorting much faster, allowing you to be in and out of the depot more quickly than before.
THE BACKGROUND ON BEVERAGE CONTAINER REFUND VALUES
In September 2019, in response to public concerns about plastic waste and missing beverage containers, the B.C. Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy launched a public consultation with the intent to develop its Clean BC Plastics Action Plan.
This consultation has led to a number of changes to beverage container deposit values. The first change was to increase the refund value of smaller containers from 5 cents to 10 cents.
In the second part of this process, Encorp Pacific / Return-It (the stewardship agency responsible for non-alcoholic beverage containers) has made a change to the recycling system which will lower the deposit value on larger containers from 20 cents to 10 cents, providing a unified deposit rate of 10 cents on all beverage containers.
While the 10-cent deposit will be charged to consumers effective October 1, 2020, a transition period for consumers to receive the 20-cent refund will be in effect until October 11, 2020 inclusive.
This will help simplify the overall system and make it even easier to recycle all beverage containers—regardless of size. If you have any of the larger refundable containers you may want to return them to our depots for refund prior to October 11th in order to receive the 20-cent rate.
We look forward to seeing you at our depots and processing your empties much quicker than before.
If you want to avoid lines and the hassle of sorting containers, check out our new drop off service – Fast Drop: Recycle without Sorting. Full Cash Refunds.
Containers with updated deposits:
Plastic
Over 1 L
OLD: 20¢ Refund
NEW: 10¢ Refund Oct 12st
Glass
Over 1 L
OLD: 20¢ Refund
NEW: 10¢ Refund Oct 12st
GABLE TOP
Over 1 L
OLD: 20¢ Refund
NEW: 10¢ Refund Oct 12st
Bi Metal
Over 1 L
OLD: 20¢ Refund
NEW: 10¢ Refund Oct 12st
BAG IN A BOX
Over 1 L
OLD: 20¢ Refund
NEW: 10¢ Refund Oct 12st
English 
French 
Chinese 
Hindi 
Japanese
I am sorry, but this price change is ridiculous!! I don’t care if it will make the time shorter at the bottle depot because I am more interested in the profits of refundable than any logistics.
How can this be positive when 20 cents has been the going rate for 2 litre containers since the early 2000s!?!??!?!? With food prices going up, people out of work and many who count on this as a way to survive I find this horrible! Obviously there must be another reason for doing this that has nothing to do with the convenience of the customers, but more for the company and earning of more profits. At least be HONEST!!! I get it because those guys working at the depot work very hard, so if I at least know if it is to boost their wages I would be satisfied so please give us a better reason rather than the lame explanation posted on your web site!
We completely understand your frustration and concerns. This decision was made by Encorp (Return-It) and approved by the Provincial Government. As recycling depot operators we are simply following the rules provided to us.
We appreciate you recycling with us, and hope to see you at one of our depots soon.
What a rip off, taking more money out of our pockets, I supplement my limited income with returning bottles. Well I guess I’m going to be throwing em in the trash.
Hi there, completely understand your concerns, but hope this doesn’t mean your containers end up in the trash instead of being recycled. (Important to note that the deposit/refund value is set by Encorp (Return-It) and approved by the provincial government. As depots we do not control this.)
Wow. This makes no sense – I’m so surprised. This is such a rip off… This doesn’t even economically make sense, for the people going out collecting… bigger bottles take up more space and weigh more – think about the homeless person with a shopping cart. A big glass bottle easily takes up the space of 3-4 non-crushed cans.
Not good, not fair.
Hi Don, completely understand your concerns. Unfortunately as depots we’re unable to change the regulations that set the deposit & refund amounts. However, we do control how much of your deposit is returned to you, and we refund the full deposit amount allowed. Hope to see you at one of our depots soon.
When we drop bottles off at the depot they give us a receipt. How do we get the money back?
Hi David, what depot did you drop your bottles off? If you dropped them off at a Regional Recycling location and sorted them, you would have received an receipt with a barcode to scan at our ATMs. If you made a Fast Drop account and dropped off your bottles unsorted, login to dzip.ca to view your order or contact support@dzip.ca. Thanks for recycling!
Why does the Logan Lake Encorp return-it depot only give 8 cents per beer or pop can? Where as in Kamloops they give 10cents?
Hi Michelle, Thank you for checking in with us on this. Because we are an independent company unrelated to the Logan Lake or any interior bottle depots we’re unable to provide any insight into the depots that operate in your area. If you go to the Encorp site (https://www.return-it.ca/locations/) you’ll be able to see all of the bottle depots in your area.