buSY tik Sunday. November 22, 1998 — North Shore News - 3 north shore news _SUNDAY FOCUS ies at LBBs Returned liquor bottles outnumber beer, cooler and cider Robert Galster News Reporter robcrt@nsnews.com IF it’s glass bring it back. In the wake of the provincial governments impiemen- tation of vastly expanded reeveling regulations, no where does the motto appiy more than within the provinee’s liquer outlets, Starting last Oct. 1, nearly every liquor store purchase carried 2 10- or 20-cent refundable deposit. “Phe program builds on the eximing deposit-refund sys- tem for beer, cooler and cider products. Coping with the accounting hassle of adding a dime or nwo on to the price of every bortle sold has not posed much ofa problem for the retailers. But dealing with the onslaught of extra returns has posed its own ser of chal- lenges. “We certainly anticipated a deluge ... but it really didn’t come,” said Dave Caldwell, manager of the Westview government liquor store. “On a consistent basis a lot more is coming back.” During a recent weekend, the Westview store received more than J,800 wine and spirit bottles compared with nearly 1,500 dozen beer, cooler and cider bottles. According to Liquor Distribution Branch spokesman Leslie Myers, 200 of the 22 provincial liquor stores have been outfitted with glass-crushing machines 10 minimize the space taken up by the additional returns. The machines, most of which were designed and man- ufactured in British Columbia, will be put to use once all of the stores have them — cither towards the end of this year or in early 1999, said Myers. “If we continue getting the machines through the month, we may just Jet them sit unplugged so to speak because it's simply too busy a month on the retail end,” said Myers. He added that December is the busiest month of the year for liquor sales. Myers also said exact statistics showing the number of additional glass containers reeyeled provinee-wide by liquer stores since the start of the program won't be avail- able for another couple of weeks. Approximately 650 million bottles of beer, coolers, Consumption alive and well in B.C. DID YOU KNOW? Bottle de Andrew McCredie Editor andrew@nsnews.com “LOTS of work.” C Wines and spints are sold each year in BoC. But wine and spirit bortles make up only 8% of thar coral. Westview's Caldwell confirmed the province-wide numbers ar his store, which has experienced a steady increase in the vol: ume of reaens, bur has not been swamped by the increase. “They won't bring back one or nwo wine bottles. I guess thev'll save them up,” said Caldwell. The Westview store is part of the majority of stores to have been equipped with a crusher that is currentiy idle. When the machine first arrived. ig was used with good results, satd Caldwell, adding that he thinks it will fit into the store’: routing well. “It was quite a natural spor for it to go in.” said Caldwell. “The shape of the machine was conducive te our setup here.” Until the machines are in use, his statf will handle the extra reruns andi shed using waist-high tour-by-five-toot bins. Meanwhile, the province's private liquor distributors must charge the deposit on all glassware but are not required ta accept returns or offer refunds. Joanne Lovetre, manager of the Liberty Wine Merchants outlet at Lonsdale Quay, said her stare is too small to handle returns. “E just don’t have the space in my store, and there’s a recycler wo blocks away (North Shore Bottle Depot on West ist Streer).” said Lovette. “2. fm not a recycler. I'm a sefler.” While customers at the private wine outlet have not complained about being unable to return their bottles where they are forced to pay a deposit, Loverte said they are upset thar they ace being charged for something they are already doing voluntarily through the blue box system. She said she conducted an intormal poll of her customers onee the new regulations came into effeet and nearly all of them: said they were already recycling their wine bottles via the blue box program. “People weren't med about paying it (the new deposit), they were just mad abour having to go to the recycling deport (instead of their residential blue box),” said Lovette. “The only good thing about this is people still reeyele them and what poor people can do is get them and get 10 cents.” — NEWS photo Mike Wakefield WESTVIEW liquor store manager Dave Caldwell demonstrates the use of a qlass crusher recently installed in the rear of the North Vancouver store. He pointed out he would be wearing gloves if the machine was actually in use. ~ VM OUTTA HERE, HONEY ... vot business booming aren't every good,” he said. “I even go to the liquor store at Chesterfield and Second to get empty boxes from them. It is a Q British Columbians produce 2.2 kg of garbage per person, per day; QO More than 75% of the waste generated in B.C. cari be recycled, reused or recovered; Q In the Greater Vancouver _ Regional District, peopie generate avo million tonnes of solid waste every year (or encugh to fill BC Place Stadium twice); Q Each Canadian throws away about half'a kilogram of packaging, per day. Half of our cities’ solid waste by volume and one third of our waste by weight is made up of packaging, QQ Compared to non-recycled methods, the production of paper, aluminum and glass from recycled materials can reduce energy con- sumption by up to 95%, water consumption by up to 50%, air ution by 95%, and water pol- lution by up to 97%; : Q Canadians take home over 55 million shopping bags a week; GQ) Recycling one glass bottle saves enough energy to light a 100-wart bulb for four hours; Q The energy saved by recycling one aluminum can is enough to power the average Canadian TV for 108 minutes (or a 100-watt bulb for three hours); O There are more than 650 mil- lion bottles of beer, coolers, cider, wine and spirits sold each year in B.C. Wine and spirit containers make up about eight percent of these containers. — BC Liquor Distribution Branch So said North Shore Borde Depot owner Duksan Kim when asked how his Lower Lonsdale business is coping with the province’s recently expanded refund/deposit pro- gram. Kim, who has owned the 38-year-old recycling depot for the past decade, said while most of his customers are very happy with the new legislation, his workers are struggling with the increased volume. Specifically, liquor and wine bottles are giving them fits. “Wine bortles and spirit bottles are a headache because we haven’t been given proper boxes to put them in,” Kim said “It wasn’t very organized when they started this new program.” Under the new program, depots like Kim’s must sepa- rate and sort wine from spirit bottles and one-litre from other containers. It is proving quite a job for his workers to efficiently — and safely — stack these bottles for shipping. Unlike liquor stores, Kim’s depot doesn’t have a glass crusher on site (see above story), and so must package and ship four-foot skids of shrink-wrapped boxes of borrles. Kim said he has heard that plans are under way to supply depots like his with plywood crates manufactured in B.C,’s Interior to deal with the packaging problem. But so far he hasn’r scen one. Instead, Kim has bought extra-strong cardboard boxes to safely stack liquor and wine bottles. He asks the recycling centres where he ships the containers to return the cardboard boxes co his business when they are emptied. “I also make a trip to grocery stores for empty fruit boxes, but these ANYMORE! Cc WON'T BE CALLING ME CHEAP money,” he said. Unlike point-of-purchase returns (for example at liquor stores and cold beer and wine stores), North Shore Bottle Depot charges a small handling fee for returns. When the expanded refund/deposit program was launched last month, the B.C. Ministry of Environment, Lands and Parks estimated an additional 166 million beverage containers would be recycled annu- ally in the province. big headache.” In anticipation of increased business, Kim hired new employees before the new pro- gram began. But he’s still sar- prised at how busy they are. “Qur sign says we are open until 5 p.m., but these days we never finish before then,” he said. “More like 6 p.m. Just because we have to package and stack the wine and spirit bottles.” While he didn’t have an actual percentage for the depor’s volume increase since the new prog:um began, Kim said early indications are that the “wet season” is proving to be much busier than usual. “Traditionally, after Halloween, things get pretty slow until April,” he said. “But this year I have no worry about being slow.” ‘ Those who seem most pleased with the expanded return policy, according to Kim, are the collectors who make their living from recycled containers. “They really like it because they are making lots of Norisa Anderson Duksan Kim feels like he’s already had that number go through his smal! Lower Lonsdale warchouse in the past seven weeks.