01 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 and stand-up pouches, as well as refillable bottles on behalf of appointed producers.
2024 Recovery Rate
75% Regulated Requirement
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Aluminum 82.3% 84.1% 83.4% -
Glass 87.6% 89.9% 94.3% -
Plastic ≤ 1L 77.8% 78.6% 75.6% -
Plastic > 1L 86.5% 78.3% 86.5% -
Drink Box 48.3% 58.8% 75.0% -
Bag in Box 55.9% 54.2% 75.0% -
Bi-metal 79.4% 78.6% 87.0% -
Gable Top 60.6% 62.7% 75.0% -
Pouches 23.7% 33.0% 75.0%
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2024 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 to the target in Encorp’s Stewardship Plan of 97%. Return-It’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 and 45 minutes in rural areas. See GIS Mapping and Accessibility in Section 4.4.
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Consumer Awareness of Locations
The Return-It™ network consists of both corporate and independently owned and operated Return-It depot collection facilities that have collection agreements with Encorp.
Consumer awareness of locations and program are measured using the same market research study and methodology.
2024 2023 Change Depots 163 162 1 Corporate Express 20 18 2 Total Return-It Network 183 180 3 2024 Awareness of Locations 
90.0% 90.0% -
2024 Program Awareness 
95.0% 99.0% Public Education Materials & Strategies
Consumer awareness levels 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, Return-It conducts a Segmentation Analysis to better understand consumer behaviour and identify target audiences, particularly around the 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 2024 contributed to the reduction of about 125.9 thousand tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) being released into the atmosphere, compared to 125.2 thousand tonnes in 2023. See Environmental Report in Section 5.
Containers collected by Encorp in 2024 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
Plan Target: An overall 6% reduction in GHG emissions from 2019 baseline2023 2024 Metric weight of materials diverted from landfill 90,283 87,438 GHG emissions and MT-CO2 eq avoided 125.2 125.9 GHG reduced from Encorp's operations compared to 2019 baseline (33%) (50%) -
Management of Program Costs
Return-It has continued its commitment to circularity by managing the sale and recovery of beverage containers across British Columbia. In 2024, over 1.3 billion containers were prevented from going to landfills, representing a 78.3% overall recovery rate. The provincial per capita recovery rate averages 239.9 units per person. These figures highlight not only the scale of Encorp’s operations but also the collective effort of people living in British Columbia 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 eligible beverage container sold in BC. In 2024, Return-It issued $136,729,692 in deposit refunds; 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. Third-party auditors were contracted to audit both the financi al and non-financial statements produced by management. See Financial Statements in Section 9.
Product Sold and Collected and Recovery Rate Total Sales
in Units1,747,189,325 Total Product
Collected in Units1,367,296,925 Recovery
Rate78.3% Provincial Per
Capita Recovery239.9 Summary of Deposits, Refunds, Revenues and Expenses Deposits
Collected$174,731,036 Refunds
Issued$136,729,692 Total
Revenue$139,050,152 Total
Expenses$123,567,393
