Expansion of the deposit system for members operating in Québec

On January 30, the Government of Québec, through the Prime Minister, announced the expansion of the deposit system. This file has been dragging on for some months now, and the CCCD has repeatedly positioned itself to reinforce the blue box system to avoid this situation.

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The Québec government will expand the deposit to all ready-to-drink beverage containers from 100 milliliters to 2 liters, whether made of plastic, glass or metal. Multilayer containers will also be targeted, but in a later step.

More than four billion containers will now be returned annually, including more than one billion plastic water bottles. Currently, 2.4 billion containers of beer and soft drinks are collected annually through deposit systems.

The proposed deposit will be set at $ 0.25 for containers of wine and spirits and $ 0.10 for all other returnable containers. The companies that market beverage containers will have financial, operational and communication responsibility for the new system through an organization recognized by RECYC-QUÉBEC, which will act on its behalf. Recovery targets will also be set by the government. Thus, businesses will need to ensure that 75% of returnable containers will be recovered and recycled in 2025 and that 90% of these containers will be in 2030. Failure to meet these targets will result in penalties.

As of today, companies have one year to file a deposit deployment plan, that is, until January 2021. This plan must offer an accessible and efficient recovery network present throughout the province. Under the current preferred scenario, this network would consist of both recovery points at retailers and industry-established depot centres.

Subject to the adoption of this measure by the National Assembly, the expanded directive would gradually come into force from the Fall of 2022.

If you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to contact:, Jean-Francois Belleau, Director, Government Relations  at jfbelleau@cccd-rcc.org or 514-316-7659