Quebec’s bottle-deposit refund system is growing. What you pay for a drink is likely to rise

The price you're paying for bottled drinks is probably going to go up. You pay for a deposit which you can get back, but there are some eco-fees tacked on that you don't see. Those fees are how Consigne Action stays afloat, because if their system works, they have to give back the deposits and their bottom line is affected. If the rate of return is high, that means more money is given back to the consumers and less money is for the system. Because of this, Consignation is going to push up those eco-fees. By next year, Consignation is increasing those fees on plastic bottles and smaller glass bottles too. The largest increase is on big glass bottles. All the eco-fees or most of the eco-fees will be charged to the consumers. The fees are intended to cover a wider mandate and higher targets set by the provincial government over the past few years. And some of Consignation's recent decisions, like the move to build its own glass processing plant, have stirred controversy. Some who work in the industry say that it might force them to shut their doors. We recycle all those soft drink companies, the beer companies. Michel Marquis owns 2M Resources, one of the three major bottle processors in the province. His company has been processing empty bottles for two decades. Bottles here get crushed and sorted and shipped off to Owens, Illinois, a glass manufacturer. He says they process roughly 80,000 tons of glass a year and could do even more if they could. But there's already players in place. So they're going ahead from our understand, so it's going to jeopardize our business. There's a lot of people who are going to lose their job. Consignation says it anticipates processing roughly 175,000 tons of glass annually, adding that Quebec's three major bottle processing plants can't meet demand. The government has encouraged Consignation to collaborate with existing industries, but it isn't being forced to. And so Consignation believes creating its own facility is the best approach. From the recovery to treating the material, there's all kinds of prescriptive points that are saying you must do it this way. And these obligations are such that, just with the plant, for example, The obligations make it such that no one is able to treat the material. Menard doesn't believe that a new plant is necessary. He says Consigne Action should collaborate with plants like 2M Resources and Group Belmar, and that it should work with partners rather than turn its back on them. So if they sell the glass in order to be processed to Belmar, They will sell it cheaper than if they sold it to Owens-Illinois Process. So I guess they want to make the most money of it. Development of Consigne Action's $60 million plant in Sorel-Tracy is underway.