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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Some still charge pop-bottle levy

Grace period given to eliminate fee

By: Carol Sanders

Posted: 04/8/2010 1:00 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

Beverage industry wants to expand recycling beyond the blue box.

PROVINCIAL Tories are choked that some stores are still charging the two-penny pop bottle levy that the province killed effective April 1.

Party members who went shopping for soda on the weekend found some retailers were collecting the beverage container levy, Tory MLA Larry Maguire (Arthur-Virden) said during question period in the legislature Tuesday.

Maguire said the retailers who are still charging the levy couldn't say why.

Conservation Minister Bill Blaikie said he was looking into it.

"We did send out a notice to retailers," said Laurie Streich with Manitoba Conservation. Some retailers are dealing with excess stock and have been given a two -week "grace period" allowing them to continue to charge the two cent levy, said Streich, director of the pollution prevention branch. "Technically speaking, the levy did end on March 31."

But as soon as the province killed its two-cent levy, the industry's beverage "stewards" on April 1 started charging distributors a "voluntary" two-cent container fee.

The industry says it wants to expand recycling beyond the blue box and collect more beverage containers in more places, said Streich, who met with the beverage industry representatives last week.

"It looks like it could be a really good initiative," said Streich, who noted that the industry hasn't been able to reach its 75 per cent recovery target for beverage containers.

If the industry is going to collect two cents a container and say it's for recycling, it's going to have to be accountable and transparent, she said.

"What's on the ground? ...Are their depots or bins everywhere?... We need some more information. There are some good ideas but there's no real meat on them."

For the past 15 years, the bulk of the funding for municipal recycling came from the two-cent levy on beverage containers. Now, instead of drink containers bearing the brunt of recycling fees, the cost will be spread around.

On April 1, the new, non-profit stewardship board -- Multi-Material Stewardship Manitoba - was ushered in. The has close to 1,000 industry "stewards" paying levies on a broad range of packaging materials and printed paper, including newspapers and magazines, coffee cups and other recyclable materials.

Some of the amounts levied on individual packaging and printed paper products are about 9/10ths of a cent on a cereal box, three cents on a large magazine and 8/10ths of a cent on a four-litre milk jug.

-- With file from Bruce Owen

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition April 8, 2010 A6

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