It’s no secret that the Beverage Containers Program (BCP) in New Brunswick is in need of changes. Recovery rates in New Brunswick for deposit-bearing beverage containers are among the lowest in Canada.
Therefore, to bring the performance of the BCP in line with similar programs in Canada, we are supporting the recent announcement that ECC is proposing to adopt an Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) model as of April 1, 2024. EPR is a policy approach in which a producer’s responsibility – physical and/or financial – for a product is extended to the post-consumer stage of a product’s life cycle. EPR shifts responsibility upstream in the product life cycle to the producer or distributor.
With that in mind, these are what we can expect as changes to the BCP in line with EPR principles:
1) Encorp will seek continuous improvement in recovery rates: 75% in five years and 80% or higher within 10 years after transitioning the program to EPR with regular updates displayed via our Performance Indicator Gauge.
2) Encorp will implement an industry-managed container recycling fee (CRF). Each material stream will become self-funding based on costs and revenues of that particular material.
3) Encorp will seek to increase the refund amount consumers get back on the deposit paid for deposit-bearing beverage containers.
4) Encorp will lead public outreach and education campaigns to increase consumer participation in recycling. Encorp has branding and marketing concepts ready to be rolled out alongside technology tools to modernize the network of Redemption Centres and attract new customers to an improved and streamlined redemption experience.
We are confident the changes proposed will greatly modernize the New Brunswick program and improve the consumer experience of recycling all deposit-bearing beverage containers, leading to a dramatic increase to the environmental performance and redemption rates.