Imagine you’re standing at a bottle depot with an empty pop can. You can get a dime back, or you can take a chance at winning $1,000. Which would you choose?

Every year, the world produces two trillion beverage containers but only 34 per cent of glass bottles, 40 per cent of plastic bottles and 70 per cent of aluminium cans are recycled.

To increase recycling rates, many countries have adopted deposit refund systems, where you pay a small deposit, say 10 cents, when you buy an eligible beverage container and get this deposit back when you return it to a local depot.

Through this system, approximately 80 per cent of containers in British Columbia and almost 85 per cent of containers in Alberta are recovered. Still, that leaves millions of containers as litter, in landfills or incinerated every year, contributing to pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.

With Canada’s goal of zero plastic waste by 2030 drawing near,........

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