Tomorrow my fair city gets a new wine bottle recycling program. Hip hip hurray, we’re all going to be greener: we’ll be enviro-friendly AND richer for it, too. When we return our wine bottles to the Beer Store locations, they’ll give us $.50 per bottle in cold hard cash.
But wait a second, you say. WINE bottles to the BEER Store? Isn’t that a contradiction?
You bet it is. And only a province like Ontario can do such a thing with a straight face.
Now I’m all for recycling. I’m anxiously awaiting urban brown boxes (compost/organic waste collection) and I recycle everything that I can (and will carry plastic bottles for hours in order to find an appropriate receptacle instead of sending yet another product to the landfill). But this new wine bottle recovery system is seriously flawed. And dare I say, stupid.
First, the obvious: Why would I, a self-confessed wino, take my bottles to the beer store? I hate that place, and it is totally out of my way.
The green-aspect of the program is totally lost, unless you walk there (carrying a box of wine bottles… um yeah right) or take the bus (you’d look like an alcoholic, but in your own defense, you’ll fit right in on the mid-morning rides).
The extra gas a person would burn in their own car while making the special trip to the Beer Store will cancel out any carbon emission saving the recycling effort could possibly represent. In fact, I think my carbon footprint will grow if I participate in this program.
So here’s my simple, lazy-yet-practical solution: I’m going to do what I’ve been doing for years. Keep your lousy 50 cents, Ontario; my bottles are going into my blue box, and if someone wants to rifle through it as it awaits pick-up, it’s fair game. My laziness is their gain. Or something.
If the province was serious about getting more people to recycle their wine bottles, they’d get the stores that actually sell wine, the LCBOs, to collect the darn things. And they’d offer a better incentive, too. A measly 50 cents per bottle really is pocket change. While running into the Beer Store, you could reasonably plunk that much into the meter in order to avoid a parking ticket (yeah, most Beer Stores have parking lots, but that’s beside the point. And the lot at the Bank Street location is almost always full whenever I go… well, the two times I’ve been).
A case of beer is worth a few bucks in refunds; why is a wine bottle any different? If they put a $1 enviro levy on wine bottles, THEN you’d see the returns. But at .50, all we’ll see is frustrated wine drinkers and even more blue box rummaging than we already do.
It is a well-intended program, but it needs a realistic, worthwhile incentive in order to be effective. Bottles should go back to where they came from, and the penalties for non-compliance need to be higher. The return depots should be moved to LCBO locations, and each bottle should carry a minimum $1 levy. And while we’re revamping the program, let’s include all liquor bottles, too, while we’re at it.
I’m serious about recycling, but it’s hard to be dedicated when the province takes such a scatterbrained and impractical approach.
I think Ontario has followed the Feds with this latest enviro policy: all talk and very little action – and what action we do see is ridiculously limited, user-prohibitive, and ass-backwards. Yes, this is just one of many great initiatives brought to you by the overpaid bureaucrats at Queen's Park. Roll your eyes, throw up your arms, and enjoy.
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