Working together creates best solutions

Re: How will we keep the Great Lakes great? — April 29

We all want healthy Great Lakes and waterways, including the 20,000 Canadians who work in Canada’s beverage industry. However, we shouldn’t ask Ontarians to walk past their blue boxes to get into their cars to return only plastic bottles. Beverage containers are only one of many kinds of plastic that get recycled in the curbside system.

While Ashley Wallis, water program manager for Environmental Defence, is correct that provinces which have deposit systems have, to varying degrees, higher recycling rates, to implement one in Ontario would be extremely costly in infrastructure development. Setting up a completely separate recycling system for a material that makes up only 0.2 per cent of Ontario’s waste stream would make for an inefficient solution. It would be much better to invest in improvements in out-of-home and multi-dwelling recycling infrastructure and recycling education as has been done in Manitoba. This ensures that every person in Ontario has both the motivation and means to recycle and contribute to the important growing circular economy.

The Canadian Beverage Association and our members are committed to increasing recycling rates in Ontario and across Canada, and believe that all stakeholders working together is the best way to find workable solutions. Jim Goetz President, Canadian Beverage Association Toronto