By Peter Moore
Environmental groups are raising the alarm that Ontario is stepping away from its commitment to a circular economy that has producers recycle and reuse waste.
Karen Wirsig is the plastics program manager of the Environmental Defence Fund, a Canadian advocacy group. This is “a dangerous moment,” Wirsig told The Leveller. “The danger is people will get out of the habit of participating in a wildly successful program.”
To raise awareness about the problem, the Environmental Defence Fund launched an Instagram advertising campaign this September, highlighting the problem that Ontarians have fewer places to return their alcohol empties and collect their ten or twenty cent deposits.
“People paid their deposit, but now they can’t get it back.”
The Beer Store (TBS) is Ontario’s primary return point for alcohol empties. The company collected 1.6 billion alcohol containers in 2024, a recovery rate of 76%, according to its Annual Responsible Stewardship Report. However, stores are rapidly closing in response to the lower market share and the province’s decision to license alcohol sales to grocery and convenience stores. To date, TBS has announced the closure of 91 stores, including three in Ottawa, leaving only 318 open by the end of the year. “This is a job killer, for sure,” said Wirsig.
She is also concerned with the gap between now and January 1, when grocers are obliged to participate in a Deposit-Return System (DRS). Wirsig is uncertain whether new retailers of alcohol will comply.
With each retail location closed, it’s harder for customers to find a place to return their empties and claim their deposit, which is paid when they buy it. The deposit on a six-pack of beer is 60 cents. One litre containers whether they are glass, plastic or metal are worth 20 cents each. The deposit acts as an incentive to recycle, with TBS recycling over 1.6 billion alcohol beverage containers per year.
“People paid their deposit, but now they can’t get it back,” said Wirsig. “It’s a really bad message.”
The government is publicly telling the new alcohol retailers to collect alcohol empties as of January 1, 2026 because it is part of their licensing agreement.
“All these retailers, they all want the booze in the stores, they all want to sell the booze, but they don’t want to take bottles back,” Premier Doug Ford told Global News at a press conference on September 22. “There’s opportunities too to open new businesses to collect the bottles as well.”
In July 2024, the Ontario government decided against creating a DRS for non-alcoholic drink containers, such as cans, bottles and cartons. The government said it decided against the idea because it would cost retailers too much.
Not all retailers agreed with that decision. The Canadian Beverage Association, which represents beverage producers such as Coca-Cola, PepsiCo and Red Bull, lobbied for a DRS that would include the more than 7 billion containers Ontarians buy each year. The association commissioned a report that proposed that The Beer Store’s DRS could be a backbone and model for collection and repayment of the deposits to consumers. Currently, Ontario is collecting 51% of its non-alcoholic containers so it is far from its 80% recovery target, according to the report. As Ontarians buy 38% of plastic bottles in Canada, this means Ontario is holding back Canada from meeting its national recycling targets.
“Ontario can no longer remain an outlier in Canada with half of the non-alcoholic beverage containers sold in the province each year not being collected for recycling, going to landfill or being littered in the environment,” said association president, Krista Scaldwell, at the report launch in 2024.
Duncan Bury of advocacy group Waste Watch Ottawa says he does not believe retailers when they say they cannot afford the costs of setting up a DRS for all containers because they already run them cost-effectively in other provinces.
“A deposit-return system is entirely self-sustaining,” he said, recommending Ontario adopt the DRS used in British Columbia or Alberta. He said recycling fees are already a part of prices, so producers already have the means to set up and pay for waste recovery systems in Ontario. “Consumers are indirectly paying for the system.”
A further hit to Ontario’s commitment to a circular economy are the amendments announced this September to defer or reduce the demands on producers to recycle and reuse the waste they produce.
“These changes are intended to curb future cost increases, provide certainty for producers and processors, support continued investment in Ontario’s recycling infrastructure, and ensure that the Blue Box system remains accessible and effective,” according to the decision notice.
“Blue bins aren’t just bins, they’re a way for us to learn good habits, take care of the planet, and prove that our city actually cares about young people and our future.”
“Ontario is transitioning to full producer responsibility to ensure producers – not taxpayers – cover the cost of managing the waste they create. As part of this process, regulations have been amended to help address unexpected costs while maintaining current blue box services across Ontario. Existing recovery targets for paper, glass, metal, and rigid plastic will remain in place, with increases deferred until 2032,” said Gary Wheeler, a spokesperson for the Ontario Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks. “Services previously provided by municipal blue box programs – including those for multi-residential buildings, long-term care homes, schools, and retirement homes – will not be affected by this change. Locations that did not previously receive services from municipalities will become eligible for producer-run blue box services by 2031.”
The decision will leave municipalities holding the garbage bag for longer. “Many of the amendments will reduce costs to producers and further weaken the Blue Box regulation that was intended to increase innovation of products supplied into the market and increase recycling rates across Ontario,” said a City of Ottawa staff report to Ottawa’s environment committee on September 16.
“The way the Ford government makes policy is very subject to being lobbied by industry at the ministerial level,” said Angela Keller-Herzog, executive director of Community Action for Environmental Sustainability. She said that the changes to the Blue Box system, such as not covering school collection and leaving park collection to municipalities, shows that what is emerging is a “very fragmented system.”
The province is “dropping the ball,” she said. “I don’t think people should accept it.”
Ontarians are already responding. Ottawa high school students have launched an Ottawa-wide “Bring Back Blue Bins in Ottawa Schools” petition on Change.org. “Blue bins aren’t just bins, they’re a way for us to learn good habits, take care of the planet, and prove that our city actually cares about young people and our future,” stated Maya Illy-Saha, a Sir Robert Borden High School student who started the petition.
The leadership vacuum on recycling is also being noticed in Ontario’s legislative assembly.
“The Ford government’s proposed changes to the Blue Box program will lead to more waste ending up in landfills, more emissions from producers burning plastic and higher costs for municipalities, which will now be responsible for public space collection. These amendments undermine the government’s own commitments to reduce municipal costs and divert more waste from landfill,” said Green Party leader Mike Schreiner. “The Ford government is taking Ontario backwards on recycling. We already know what works: deposit-return programs in provinces like BC and Alberta have achieved recovery rates of 77 per cent and 85 per cent for non-alcoholic beverage containers, respectively.”
Ontario Liberal Party environment critic Mary-Margaret McMahon introduced Bill 32 in May to amend current legislation to include a DRS for non-alcoholic beverage containers, with TBS and grocery stores being the primary collection points. The bill is scheduled for second reading. This is McMahon’s second attempt to introduce the legislation.
“Given the situation with our neighbour to the south, we want to do everything we can possibly do to divert our waste. This would help increase our recycling numbers that we need in Ontario,” she told the legislature.
