01 Executive Summary
Encorp Pacific (Canada) is the not-for-profit stewardship agency appointed by its member producers to fulfill the requirements of the Recycling Regulation (BC Reg. 449/2004) under the Environmental Management Act for Beverage Containers – Schedule 1. The Encorp Stewardship Plan encompasses 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.
More information is available at: return-it.ca
2025 Recovery Rate
75% Regulated Requirement
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Aluminum 81.5% 82.3% 84.6% -
Glass 89.2% 87.6% 94.8% -
Plastic ≤ 1L 75.6% 77.8% 76.8% -
Plastic > 1L 94.0% 86.5% 86.7% -
Drink Box 50.8% 48.3% 75.0% -
Bag-in-a-Box 56.4% 55.9% 75.0% -
Bi-metal 88.1% 79.4% 88.0% -
Gable Top 64.1% 60.6% 75.0% -
Pouches 20.9% 23.7% 75.0% -
Ceramics 40.7% — —
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Public Education Materials & Strategies
Every year, Encorp develops and implements a comprehensive strategic marketing plan to increase consumer awareness and participation in responsible beverage container recycling across British Columbia. Annual market research measures key indicators, program awareness and return-location awareness. See a detailed overview of Public Educational Materials and Strategies in Section 3.
Program Awareness 
95.0% 99.0% Location Awareness 
90.0% 96.0% -
Collection System and Access
Over the past 30 years, Encorp has developed an extensive network of dedicated return locations through the Return-It program to ensure province-wide accessibility and strong environmental outcomes. To maximize participation and operational efficiency, Encorp has developed a comprehensive suite of collection systems and facilities. See a detailed overview of Collection System and Facilities in Section 4. See a detailed overview of GIS Mapping and Accessibility Analysis in Section 4.4.
2025 2024 Change Independent Return-It Licensed Depots 162 163 (1) Return-It Corporate Depots 4 2 2 Return-It Express & GO 22 18 4 Total Return-It Network 188 183 5 Access Level 
97.0% 99.2% -
Product Environmental Impact
Encorp’s operations and activities are aligned with the Government of BC’s CleanBC policy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and mitigate climate impacts. Through on-site compaction, material consolidation and responsible end-of-life processing, Encorp continues to reduce transportation impacts and maximize material recovery, contributing to a lower-carbon circular economy. See a detailed overview of Environmental Impact in Section 5.
Target: An overall 6% reduction in GHG emissions from 2019 baseline2025 2024 Metric tonnes of materials diverted from landfill 84,590 87,438 GHG emissions and MT-CO2 eq avoided 135.4 125.9 GHG reduction target performance against the 2019 baseline (44%) (50%) -
Pollution Prevention Hierarchy
The pollution prevention hierarchy reinforces a circular economy approach, ensuring materials are treated as valuable resources, rather than waste. Material collected under the Encorp programs falls within the Recycle tier of the hierarchy. Encorp works closely with its member producers to reduce environmental impacts throughout the product lifecycle. See a detailed overview of Container Recycling End Fate Report in Section 5.1.
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Product Sold, Collected & Recovery Rate
All Encorp producer members are required to submit monthly BC sales data. This data is reviewed to ensure accuracy and timeliness. Sales volumes (by units) are then used to calculate the recovery rate, which is determined by comparing the number of units collected to the number of units sold during the annual reporting period. See a detailed overview of Product Sold / Collected and Recovery Rate in Section 6.
Total Sales
in Units1,774,196,165 Total Product
Collected in Units1,392,361,693 Recovery
Rate78.5% Provincial Per
Capita Recovery244.4 
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Summary of Deposits, Refunds, Revenues & Expenditures
As a not-for-profit stewardship organization, Encorp has developed a cost-effective system to recycle all beverage containers registered with the Return-It program. The program is funded through three primary revenue sources: the commodity value of collected containers, unredeemed deposits and container recycling fees (CRFs). These revenues support the full operation of the program, including collection, transportation, material consolidation, responsible processing and recycling, consumer education and outreach initiatives and overall program administration. See a detailed overview of Summary of Deposits, Refunds, Revenues and Expenditures in Section 6.
Encorp maintains a strong commitment to transparency and accountability. An independent third-party auditor is engaged to audit both the financial statements and select non-financial information prepared by management, ensuring accuracy, compliance and responsible financial stewardship. See a detailed overview of Financial Statements in Section 9.
Deposits
Collected$177,421,041 Refunds
Issued$139,236,749 Total
Revenue$169,262,352 Total
Expenses$135,317,961 
