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 includes all ready-to-drink beverage containers sold in British Columbia as identified under Schedule 1 of the Recycling Regulation, such as aluminum cans, plastic, glass, bi-metal, drink boxes, gable tops, milk and plant-based beverages, bag-in-a-box and stand-up pouches, as well as refillable bottles on behalf of appointed producers.
Encorp has been leading extended producer responsibility performance in Canada for 27 years and has diverted more than 23 billion beverage containers from the landfill.
return-it.ca
2021 Recovery Rate
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2021 Awareness Level
95.0% 99.0% Public education materials and strategies
Consumer awareness levels are measured through annual benchmark studies conducted by a third-party market researcher. The methodology and sample sizes are representative of the province and statistically accurate to a margin of +/- 5%. The studies track changes over time and provide valuable information and consumer trends. See Research and Segmentation Analysis
In addition to the benchmark study, Return-It conducts a segmentation analysis to better understand consumer behaviour and identify target audiences, particularly regarding throw-away behaviour of each target group.
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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2021 Access Level
97.0% 99.3% Depots Express & GO Express Plus 163 9 2 
2021 Awareness of Locations
90.0% 96.0% 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.
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 their refund. Customers just tag their bags, drop them off and are on their way within minutes. Express & GO locations are unstaffed solar-powered drop-off stations with extended hours and contactless service where consumers are still able to benefit from the ease and convenience of Express. Express Plus locations, Encorp's flagship, offering a convenient and cashless way to recycle used beverage containers and other small household items. There are a total of 78 in-depot Express locations, 9 Express & GO stations and 2 Express Plus locations in BC.
99.3% of BC’s population has access to a beverage container return facility, compared to the target of 97% in our Stewardship Plan. This target is based on an independent third-party study and exceeds the current Stewardship Agencies of British Columbia (SABC) accessibility standard.
The awareness of locations metric is also measured using the same market research study and methodology as system awareness.
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2021
6.0% 4.09% Product environmental impact reduction, reusability and recyclability
Encorp’s activities in 2021 contributed to the reduction of about 110.2 thousand tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) being released into the atmosphere, compared to 105.5 thousand tonnes in 2020.
Encorp tracks and reports on the following: metric weight of materials diverted from landfill, Energy savings by material type, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and MT-CO2 equivalent avoided, end fate of each material type, and GHG reduction target performance against the baseline.
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Pollution prevention hierarchy and product/component management
Containers collected by Encorp in 2021 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
Product sold and collected and recovery rate
The Stewardship Plan outlines the recovery rate targets for a five-year term, and each term consists of a full year of sales and recovery data starting in January each year. The delay of the approval for the Stewardship Plan left a gap in the targets for 2021. The five-year targets were approved on September 1, 2021, when the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy approved the Stewardship Plan. Accordingly, year one of the approved targets will be tracked as of January 1, 2022. In this Annual Report, Encorp Pacific (Canada) has not provided disclosures on performance against plan targets but has provided the recovery rate performance against the regulatory requirement of 75%.
| Total Sales in units | 1,470,642,100 |
|---|---|
| Total Product Collected in units | 1,116,121,423 |
| Recovery Rate | 75.9% |
| Provincial Per Capita Recovery | 214.0 units |
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79.9%
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86.9%
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71.7%
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79.9%
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54.0%
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47.8%
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83.4%
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59.6%
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23.5%
Summary of deposits, refunds, revenues and expenses
A deposit is paid on every beverage container sold in BC. Unclaimed deposits are used to fund the system. When the revenue from unclaimed deposits and from the sales of collected material are insufficient to cover the cost of recovering and recycling a specific container type, a non-refundable container recycling fee (CRF) is added at the time of sale to make up for the shortfall.
| Deposits Collected | $147,082,849 |
|---|---|
| Refunds Issued | $111,612,630 |
| Total Revenue | $223,532,468 |
| Total Expenses | $211,484,708 |
