After slow winter, N.B. bottle depots are seeing dramatic increase in returns

Bags filled with empty beverage containers are stacked to the ceiling at the Southside Redemption Centre in Fredericton.

Manager David McCarthy said the mountain of bags represents just one day of returns.

"It's been quite, quite busy," McCarthy said Friday. "We've been seeing a lot of big orders. We're lined up all the time. It is quite overwhelming."

On April 1, a new program that will be overseen by Recycle N.B. and administered by Encorp Atlantic, a not-for-profit created by the beverage industry, allows consumers to nearly double their returns at redemption centres.

McCarthy said he heard from consumers throughout the winter that they were waiting for the bigger payout.

"People were calling and asking when it was coming into effect," he said, noting that some charitable organizations and schools said they would keep their cans and bottles until the change.

McCarthy said it meant for a slow winter, and he would often have to send staff home. But now his staff is overwhelmed.

Pub's Redemption centre in Saint John is dealing with the same thing.

Owner Theresa Colquhoun said she would usually see an average of between 60,000 and 70,000 units per day this time of year. It's between 98,000 and 130,000 this year.

She said her staff are working 10-hour days to deal with the increase and space at the depot is running out.

"It's very, very hard work," she said. "We're having to drag bags outside during the day and drag them back inside at night."

Fredericton's Southside Redemption sees surge of bottles after launch of new program

8 months ago

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Since April 1 consumers get nearly double the cash back when returning redeemables. Many waited for the maximum payout. Now depots are struggling to keep up.

She said service providers contracted by Encorp to pick up bottles are having to leave some behind because of the increased volume.

One of those service providers, Herbert's Recycling, said it is doing all it can to ensure depots do not run out of space. It has temporarily added three trucks to its fleet and is working weekends to meet demand.

In a statement, Encorp said it is offering redemption centres advances on inventory that can't be picked up.

McCarthy said he is also tight on space but doesn't think he will have to turn people away. "We can just always find a way. We can just stack higher or do whatever we can."

He is asking people to be patient when they visit the depot. He said he doesn't expect numbers to be back to average until June.

Colquhoun said she is optimistic that the new program will encourage more returns despite some early growing pains.

"We want to do something to leave this Earth a little bit better when we're dead and gone. So, hopefully, it will encourage consumers to actually bring their bottles in."