If you buy a container that incljudes a ready to drink liquid in Alberta, you will pay a deposit on the container. This is to ensure that you return it to a bottle depot in Calgary. A bottle depot is a bottle recycling facility that collects empty drink containers. They give the consumer back the refund they paid and send the containers on to be recycled – either into new drink containers or into new items that can use the recycled materials.
The great things about the bottle depot in Calgary is that every item returns to the recycling facilities can be reused into something else. When they do this, fewer new materials are required to create the supply of drink containers required by beverage companies and consumers. It also requires fewer emissions and energy to create a drink container out of recycled materials than to create a brand new one. The same goes for consumer and commercial products that are made from recycled materials.
Here are some important facts to know about the
bottle recycling program in Alberta and the bottle depot in Calgary.
1.
The deposit charged on a container
depends on the amount of liquid the container holds. If the container holds
less than one litre of liquid, the deposit amount is ten cents. If it is one
litre or more, the deposit amount is twenty five cents. The deposit is
collected at the point of sale on every single drink container sold. It is then
helpd in trust by the location is was sold at and the consumer gets their
deposit refunded when they take the empty container to a bottle depot.
2.
Bottle depots are essential
recycling facilities. They may not do the recycling, but they do the most
critical function within the system which is to engage with the consumer,
accurately sort the returns to be effectively recycled and ensure the returns
are transported on to a recycling facility where they can be processed. It’s a
critical function to be this bridge between consumer and the facility where the
recycling actually happens.
3.
Using recycled materials means
that there are fewer emissions in our atmosphere, less raw materials being
extracted from the ground and the products we are using are often more durable.
This is the reason that the province has taken the effort to set up a recycling
program.
4.
Having bottle depots results in a
cleaner city. When every bottle, can and carton is worth something to return,
they all eventually find their way to a bottle depot where they can be
recycled. A city ends up being much cleaner because there is always someone
willing to pick up a can or bottle and get it back to a recycling facility.
When you purchase beverage products in Alberta, the
deposit you pay is part of an important system that ensures drink containers
are properly recycled so they can be reused. This saves the environment from additional
emissions and makes our products more sustainable.