To all brand owners selling beverage products in New Brunswick,
As we approach the April 1, 2024, transition of the New Brunswick Beverage Containers Program to an extended producer responsibility (EPR) model, we want to ensure clarity on your responsibilities.
Brand owners who have signed a Brand Owner Agreement with Encorp Atlantic / Encorp Atlantique (“Encorp”) for the new EPR Beverage Containers Program are tasked with reporting sales and remitting deposits, along with the new container recycling fees (CRFs), to Encorp for all beverage container sales in New Brunswick from April 1, 2024, onward. You will need to submit these by doing Remittance Reports through our Brand Owner Portal, which you will be able to access at encorpatl.ca/epr. Your login details (username and password) for this portal will be sent to you in a separate email around mid-April, so please keep an eye on your inbox.
Your first Remittance Report using the Brand Owner Portal will most likely need to be submitted in May.
- Brand owners with a 12-month reporting period will need to submit their Remittance Report covering the month of April in May.
- Brand owners with a 13-month reporting period may need to use the portal in late April to submit their first Remittance Report covering the period of April 1st to their April end date.
Once logged in to the Brand Owner Portal, you will need to enter quantities of deposit-bearing beverage products by container category. The form will automatically apply and calculate the appropriate deposits and CRF amounts and display the total payment you need to remit to Encorp. Once you submit your Remittance Report, you’ll receive a confirmation email along with an attached invoice.
Please note the following.
- Even if you have no deposit-beverage containers to report for any given reporting period, you will still need to log in and enter “0” in all fields for container categories.
- For brand owners of alcohol beverage products: You will need to report and remit deposits and CRFs for beverage products manufactured and sold on your premises, as well as those sold to other establishments/retailers for sale in New Brunswick, excluding Alcool NB Liquor (ANBL) and its distribution network. (ANBL will handle reporting sales and remitting deposits and CRFs to Encorp on your behalf for all your beverage products distributed through its distribution systems, including agency stores.) If ALL your beverage products are exclusively sold in New Brunswick through ANBL and its distribution systems, you won’t need to complete or submit Remittance Reports to Encorp. However, keeping your Brand Owner Portal login credentials for reference is important in case you begin selling products outside of ANBL at a later date.
Brand owners with Distributor Agreements with Encorp set to expire on March 31, 2024, should also remember to submit their final Deposit Remittance Report covered by this agreement. This report should include beverage container deposits up to March 31, 2024, and can be completed via the same Beverage Containers Deposit Remittance Form you have used to submit previous reporting periods. Please note that this form will only be available on our website until the end of May, after which it will be removed. If you have paid a security deposit, we will return it once we have received, reviewed and received payment for this final Deposit Remittance Report for the Beverage Containers Program ending March 31, 2024. All beverage container sales beginning April 1, 2024, fall under the new EPR Beverage Containers Program and must be reported via Encorp’s Brand Owner Portal. If you have sales overlapping March and April, you will have to do two separate reports: the portion for March must be done using the old form, and the portion for April must be done using the new Brand Owner Portal.
Finally, if your company manufactures, distributes, or sells beverage products in New Brunswick and hasn’t yet signed a Brand Owner Agreement with Encorp for the new EPR Beverage Containers Program, you may be out of compliance with the New Brunswick Designated Materials Regulation (Clean Environment Act). We urge you to review our Brand Owner Information Kit. It’s available at encorpatl.ca/epr and provides comprehensive details about the new EPR Beverage Containers Program, including compliance steps. If you feel your company does not qualify to enter into an agreement with Encorp, please let us know so we can remove you from our email list regarding future communications.
