Milk Container Collection Program

In late 2006, the British Columbia Dairy Council (BCDC) rolled out the first stage of its voluntary milk container recycling program in BC’s Lower Mainland. By the end of 2007 the program was available in all parts of the province and by 2009 there were 144 Encorp Return-It Depots accepting milk containers for recycling.

This program is designed to supplement existing curbside recycling programs for milk jugs which already give BC one of the highest recycling rates in North America for this type of container.

With an increased number of depots, and a continuing consumer awareness effort, the program increased the recovery rate for polycoat milk cartons from 2.2% in 2007 to 5.3% in 2008. Milk jugs, the majority of which are collected through municipal curbside programs, achieved a recovery rate of 79% in 2008. The Encorp program alone collected, and sent for recycling, over 310,000 Kgs of milk jugs and milk cartons in 2008.

The program is operated for the BC Dairy Council by Encorp Pacific (Canada), the largest private sector product stewardship agency in B.C.

• Status Report as of June 30, 2009   Acrobat Document: Status20Report_090630.pdf, 49,757 bytes
• Status Report as of March 26, 2009   Acrobat Document: StatusreportMar2609.pdf, 40,790 bytes
• Mid Year Status Report as of June 30, 2008   Acrobat Document: Status20Report_080630.pdf, 33,938 bytes
• Status Report as of March 31, 2008   Acrobat Document: StatusreportMar3108.pdf, 41,335 bytes
• 134 Return-It Milk Locations Across BC   Acrobat Document: DairyMap0208.pdf, 108,482 bytes