Attention redemption centre owners and operators,
With the continued current state of emergency in New Brunswick surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic having disrupted your business, we wish to reassure all redemption centre owners and operators that we remain committed to providing financial assistance, helping you navigate these unprecedented times, and helping you resume operations as quickly as possible once restrictions are lifted.
Financial assistance
We issued an advance to all redemption centres (handling fee based on individual averages) the week of Wednesday, March 25, 2020. A second advance will be issued on Wednesday, April 8, 2020. No interest is charged on these advances; however, they are recoverable by making deductions from future handling fees that would have otherwise been payable once operations resume. We will provide all redemption centre operators with a letter of acknowledgement of this financial assistance. You will receive this letter in the coming days. We ask that you sign it and return it to us ASAP (email: pauline.nowlan@encorpatl.ca or fax: 506-389-7329).
Plan for resuming operations
It is difficult to predict when the state of emergency will be lifted, as well as when non-essential businesses will be able to resume operations. We can, however, start planning for increased sanitation/hygiene and physical distancing regulations that will most likely be imposed on all businesses who interact with the public, similar to those currently in place for businesses considered essential services like grocery stores. We strongly recommend that redemption centre owners and managers start thinking about how they will adapt to such potential temporary regulations. For example, the government may ask that your business does things such as:
- Limit the number of customers allowed inside your customer service area so that customers can keep a safe distance (2 m);
- Limit the number of employees working at a time so that employees can keep a safe distance (2 m);
- Provide face masks and gloves for your employees;
- Make hand-washing stations or hand sanitizer available for employees and customers;
- Require employees to wash their hands regularly;
- Require frequent disinfection of high contact areas, such as the counting/sort table as well as cash area in between each transaction.
We will make sure to inform redemption centres of such measures if they are stated when announcements for lifting the state of emergency start being made. We recommend you keep following the Government of New Brunswick’s website, in the meantime, for up-to-date information on the pandemic and resources: https://www2.gnb.ca/.
Marketing and promotions
We have been working on and will take a leadership role in promoting the redemption centre network among New Brunswickers in order to help increase recycling rates at all redemption centres post-pandemic. Our marketing and promotional efforts will aim to first increase awareness of the importance of recycling among consumers and second, support your local business by returning their containers. We are also working on long-term marketing strategies to accompany the eventual roll-out of new technology which will improve the customer experience as well as the image beverage consumers have of the redemption and recycling process.
Staff at Encorp continue to work from home. Expect delays, but rest assured that we continue to respond to your calls and emails and issue payments.
Note that we post frequent updates to the News & Updates for Redemption Centres page on our website.
