Executive Summary
Encorp Pacific (Canada) is the not-for-profit stewardship agency appointed to fulfill the requirements of the Recycling Regulation, Schedule 1, Beverage Container Product Category (BC Reg. 449/2004). The Encorp Stewardship Plan covers all ready-to-drink beverage containers such as aluminum cans, plastic, glass, bi-metal, drink boxes, gable tops, bag-in-a-box, stand-up pouches as well as refillable bottles on behalf of appointed producers.
Encorp has been leading extended producer responsibility performance in Canada for
26 years and has diverted more than 21 billion beverage containers from the landfill.
return-it.ca
2020 Recovery Rate
1.1 Program Performance Summary
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Public education materials and strategies
A multi-million dollar, year-round, province-wide, multi-pronged consumer awareness campaign with strategic action plans and activities resulted in a net consumer awareness level of 99%.
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Collection system and facilities
The Return-It™ network consists of independently owned and operated Return-It depot collection facilities that have collection agreements with Encorp, as well as corporate Return-It Express Plus™ locations and Express & GO™ unstaffed stations.Encorp’s collection network consists of 168 Return-It depots, 1 Return-It Express Plus location and 5 Express & GO stations.
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Product environmental impact reduction, reusability and recyclability
Encorp’s activities in 2020 contributed to the reduction of about 105.5 thousand tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) being released into the atmosphere, compared to 104.8 thousand tonnes in 2019.
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Pollution prevention hierarchy and product / component management
Containers collected by Encorp in 2020 were shipped to recyclers for further processing into new material in accordance with Section 8 of the Recycling Regulation.
See End Fate information in Section 5.2
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Product sold and collected and recovery rate
- Total Sales in units: 1,362,935,045
- Total Product Collected in units: 1,038,180,271
- Recovery Rate: 76.2% compared to 78.1% last year
- Provincial Per Capita Recovery: 201.7 units
- See regional breakdown in Section 6.3
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Summary of deposits, refunds, revenues and expenses
- Deposits collected: $144,731,701
- Refunds issued: $109,062,260
- Total revenue: $104,019,319
- Total expenses: $103,142,937
- See Financial Statements in Section 9.2
1.2 Comparison of Key Performance Targets
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Consumer access
98.57% BC Population Access Exceeded 1.57% 97% Target 98.57% of BC’s population has access to a beverage container return facility, compared to the target in our Stewardship Plan of 97%. This target is based on drive times and exceeds the current Stewardship Agencies of British Columbia (SABC) accessibility standard. When we add the retail return points, the access level increases.
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Consumer awareness
99.0%Container Type Awareness Exceeded 4.0% 95.0% Target 
We set a goal to reach a 95% net awareness level for container types and beverage types that carry a deposit. Research results show that a 99% awareness level has been reached.
89.0% Brand Awareness 
The Return-It brand has reached a 89% awareness level with residents in British Columbia.
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Consumer convenience
The Express system provides a superior level of consumer convenience by removing the need for customers to sort their containers and wait in line for the refund. Customers just tag their bags, drop them off and are on their way within minutes. In 2020, we added 12 more locations, for a total of 80 Express sites in the province. In 2019, Encorp launched Express & GO: unstaffed drop-off stations where consumers are still able to benefit from the ease and convenience of Express. With the addition of 3 new locations in 2020 (Park Royal Mall in West Vancouver, North Vancouver Transfer Station and Big White Ski Resort), we now have a total of 5 Express & GO Stations across the province.
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Carbon footprint
In 2020, Encorp recycled 89,976 metric tonnes of used beverage containers. The energy saved through the recycling of these materials has been converted into tonnes of CO2e, the common measure of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In 2020, we calculated results and compared them to the 2019 data. See full environmental report in Section 5.
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Recovery rate
76.2% Recovery Rate Exceeded 1.2% 75.0% Regulation The 2020 recovery rate is 76.2%, 1.2% above the regulated requirement of 75%. The decline in recovery rate during 2020 is in part attributable to the COVID-19 pandemic, as half of our network was closed for roughly six weeks.
