For the sixth straight year, the Liquor Control Board of Ontario is contributing $4 million to Ontario municipalities that collect glass beverage alcohol containers in their “Blue Box” recycling systems.
The funds are being distributed this month to165 municipalities according to the number of metric tons of glass beverage alcohol containers collected by each municipality in 2002.
The payments are determined by an annual ‘data call’ in which municipalities submit their recycling tonnages and costs to a central data repository.
“We know the Blue Box system is the most convenient and cost-effective way to recover LCBO beverage alcohol containers for recycling and we are committed to maintaining this service for consumers with financial support to municipalities to cover recycling costs,” said Andrew Brandt, LCBO chair and CEO. “This support also helps maintain the long-term viability of the Blue Box system which is used to recover many other types of containers and materials for recycling.”
In addition to the $4 million in funding to municipalities, the LCBO has designated an additional $1 million to be used for market development and securing sustainable markets for colored glass collected in “Blue Box” programs.
Since the funding program began in 1998, the LCBO has contributed $24 million to municipalities to cover beverage alcohol container recycling costs.
It will continue this funding commitment by contributing an additional $5 million for this purpose in each of the next four years.
The LCBO is a member of the industry funding organization, Stewardship Ontario, which is implementing and operating the Blue Box Program Plan approved by the Environment Minister in December 2003.
Under the plan, companies that produce or use packaging materials and/or printed papers destined for the Ontario marketplace and recovered through municipal residential waste management systems contribute 50 percent of the net cost of these recycling systems.