1 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 top cartons, bag-in-a-box, stand-up pouches as well as refillable bottles on behalf of appointed producers.
2023 Recovery Rate
75% Regulated Requirement
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Aluminum 84.1% 81.6% 82.3% -
Glass 89.9% 86.8% 93.3% -
Plastic ≤ 1L 78.6% 70.4% 74.6% -
Plastic > 1L 78.3% 92.6% 86.3% -
Drink Box 58.8% 55.8% 65.0% -
Bag in Box 54.2% 48.8% 60.0% -
B-metal 78.6% 83.8% 86.0% -
Gable Top 62.7% 65.4% 73.0% -
Pouches 33.0% 21.4% 60.0%
Encorp is committed to reach the overall recovery rate target of 83.6% set in the Stewardship Plan
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2023 Access Level
97.0% 99.2% Collection System and Access
99.2% of BC’s population has access to a beverage container return facility, compared with the 97% target in the Stewardship Plan. Encorp’s collection system and consumer access are measured annually by using GIS mapping of all collection locations and matching the location to the population base and drive time radius. In urban areas, the drive time radius is set at 30 minutes; however, most locations are within a 15-minute drive time. In rural areas, the drive time is set at 45 minutes. See GIS Mapping and Accessibility in Section 4.4.
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Consumer Awareness of Locations
The Return-It network consists of depot collection facilities that have collection agreements with Encorp as well as corporate Return-It Express Plus™ locations and Express & GO™ unstaffed stations.
The awareness of locations is measured using the same market research study and methodology that is used for measuring system awareness.
2022 2023 Variance Depots 163 162 (1) Express Plus 2 2 – Express & GO 12 16 4 Total Return-It Network 177 180 3 2023 Awareness of Locations
90.0% 95.0% -
2023 Program Awareness
95.0% 99.0% Public Education Materials & Strategies
Consumer awareness levels of the program are measured through an annual benchmark study 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.
In addition to the benchmark study, Encorp conducts a Segmentation Analysis to better understand consumer behaviour and identify target audiences particularly around throw-away behaviour of each target group. See Research and Segmentation Analysis in Section 3.1.
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Product Environmental Impact
Encorp’s activities in 2023 contributed to the reduction of 125.2 thousand tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) being released into the atmosphere, compared with 123.5 thousand tonnes in 2022. See Environmental Report in Section 5.
Containers collected by Encorp in 2023 were shipped to recyclers for further processing into new products in accordance with Section 8 of the Recycling Regulation. See End Fate information in Section 5.2
Plan Target: An overall 6% reduction in GHG emissions from 2019 baseline2022 2023 Metric weight of materials diverted from landfill 90,257 90,283 Energy savings by material type 82.53% 85.0% GHG emissions and MT-CO2 eq avoided 123.5 125.2 GHG reduction target performance against the 2019 baseline (25.03%) (33%) -
Management of Program Costs
Encorp has continued its commitment to circularity by managing the sale and recovery of beverage containers across British Columbia. In 2023, Encorp prevented 1.375 billion containers from ending up in landfills, representing a 79.6% overall recovery rate. The provincial per capita recovery rate averages 249.2 units per person. These figures highlight not only the scale of operations but also the collective effort of British Columbians in contributing to a more sustainable future. See Deposits, Refunds and Recovery Rates in Section 6.
In British Columbia a deposit is paid on every beverage container sold in the province. In 2023, Encorp issued $137,516,157 in deposit refunds. Unclaimed deposits are used to help 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 is added at the time of sale to make up for the shortfall. Third-party auditors were contracted to audit both the financial and non-financial statements produced by management. See Financial Statements in Section 9.
Product Sold / Collected and Recovery Rate Total Sales
in Units1,726,702,889 Total Product
Collected in Units1,375,161,566 Recovery
Rate79.6% Provincial Per
Capita Recovery249.2 Summary of Deposits, Refunds, Revenues and Expenses Deposits
Collected$172,670,289 Refunds
Issued$137,516,157 Total
Revenue$249,080,000 Total
Expenses$261,871,938