Bring empty wine bottles to SAQ to turn up pressure for deposit system, group urges
Liquor board says it's already helped increase rate of glass recycling in province through its own initiatives
The refusal of Quebec's liquor agency, the SAQ, to establish a deposit-return system on old wine bottles has gone from vintage to vinegar, says a new lobby group called SAQ Consigne.
Quebec is one of the only provinces in Canada that still doesn't accept wine bottle returns.
SAQ Consigne spokesperson Denis Blaquière thinks the SAQ is the ideal place to accept empty wine bottles — and that it would put a bottle deposit-return system in place if mandated to do so by the government.
Such a system "creates jobs. It makes sense economically. It's good for the environment. So why don't we have that in Quebec?" he asks.
Blaquière wants citizens to start bringing their empty wine bottles to the SAQ, as a way of pressuring the agency to accept them.
The SAQ has rebuffed the idea, saying it wants wine bottles to "get a second life" through Quebec's current curbside recycling program.
SAQ spokesperson Linda Bouchard said the agency already participates in intiatives to increase glass recycling.
For Blaquière, that isn't enough.
He said with the curbside bins, glass breaks on its way to the recycling plant, and it ends up contaminating paper and plastic collected in the same bins.
That's an issue the SAQ said it is helping work on.
With files from Franca Mignacca