Waterloo urges province to implement non-alcoholic bottle deposit-return program
Posted Apr 22, 2026 05:07:53 AM.
Last Updated Apr 22, 2026 10:53:23 AM.
A Waterloo councillor is calling on the provincial government to incentivize people to recycle their bottles more often.
A motion from Councillor Julie Wright at a council meeting on Monday urged the province to implement a non-alcoholic bottle deposit-return program.
Wright noted that Ontario is one of the few provinces that doesn’t support a deposit-return for non-alcoholic bottles, and it has the lowest beverage container recovery rate in Canada.
“Canadian provinces and territories that have a deposit-return program are able to recycle over three-quarters of their bottles, and even higher than that,” said Wright.
Wright hopes that such a program would encourage folks to recycle all bottles, as empty alcoholic beverage bottles are returned to Ontario Beer Stores about 80 per cent of the time.
“Recycling rates are in a weird, fluctuating position at the moment, and we really need leadership in this moment in order to get ahead of this issue,” said Wright at Monday’s meeting.
Wright’s motion alleged that the Ontario government proposed expanding the program to include non-alcoholic containers in 2023.
The motion was passed unanimously, and messages are set to be sent to Premier Ford’s office, as well as the offices of local MPPs.
