The Legault government believes that the public and equipment manufacturers are not yet ready for the complete expansion of the deposit, so Quebecers will have to wait until the beginning of 2025 to collect their bottles of water and wine.
Retailers who did not want the deposit to be extended before 2025 have won their bet, for plastic and glass.
“It hasn’t been easy. But, I have a hard head, it’s not them who convinced me,” said the Minister of the Environment, Benoit Charette, in an interview with our Parliamentary Office.
The application of the deposit on all plastic and glass containers, initially scheduled for November 2022 and postponed to this year, has been postponed for more than a year.
“For glass and plastic, we’re talking about a timeline that would take us somewhere in early 2025, with multilayer [carton de jus-] at the same time, he confirmed. We had this fear that integrating everything at the same time would cause a lot of discontent. »
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Initially planned for the end of 2025, the deposit of multi-layer cartons would start at the same time as glass and plastic.
Many reasons
Reports “perfectly assumed” by the Minister of the Environment.
“There are different reasons for these postponements,” he said, saying in particular that the manufacturers of machines called “supergobeuses” are unable to deliver them now in sufficient numbers.
“I have equipment manufacturers who are unable to supply, I have new depot sites which do not yet have their municipal permits. I wanted to avoid at all costs on November 1 that we end up with consumers who would have paid their 10 cents, but who would not have the possibility of being reimbursed. »
He explains that the two equipment manufacturers told him that they “would not be able to do it” for November 1st.
“This is the signal that I had to hear to avoid a form of backlash from the population,” he argued.
As of November 1, 2023, aluminum bottles can be returned (see box).
The existing deposit, as on beer cans, will increase from 5 to 10 cents.
“It’s not trivial, to overtake […] and ten extra pennies for containers that were not recorded, that will provoke reactions, ”pleads the minister.
education to do
Benoit Charette maintains that the pilot project set up at the end of 2022 has shown, for the moment, that the public still needs to be educated on the subject.
“We’ve been talking about it since the 1980s of the deposit, but it’s not integrated by everyone, on the contrary, we see it in our data […] We also wanted to give ourselves some time for education, so starting this summer there will be advertisements that will be made to inform people a little about the big changes. There will then be a year for the other containers, ”he said.
EXPANSION OF THE SETPOINT
1st November 2023
◆ Aluminum container such as:
- Cans
- Cans
- jars
*Increased from 5 cents to 10 cents
Early 2025
◆ Plastic, glass, multilayer cardboard like:
- Bottles of wine and spirits
- Bottles of water
- Juice containers
- milk containers
- Laundry containers
- Glass jars
*10 cent deposit