2019 Annual Report

In 2019, we celebrated 25 years and 20 billion beverage containers diverted from the landfill. We have been able to accomplish this through the support of our employees and partners over the years.

Every year, we publish an annual report as a point of accountability for our stewardship targets and expectations. The Encorp Stewardship Plan covers all ready-to-drink beverage containers for soft drinks, juice, water, wine, coolers and spirits, plus non-refillable beer bottles sold in British Columbia – all in accordance with BC’s Recycling Regulation. Our 2019 Annual Report isn't quite ready to share in full yet, but we want to share some of Encorp's key statistics and accomplishments from last year.

Here is a brief summary of what we accomplished in 2019:

Recovery Rate:

Increase in our 2018 recovery rate to 78.1%, 3.1% above the regulated requirement of 75%. Over 1 billion containers were collected.

The regional breakdown can be found in section 6.2 of the Annual Report.

Collection System, Facilities & Consumer access:

With a collection network of 169 Return-It Depots and 2 Express & GO stations, 98.6% of B.C.’s population has access to a beverage container return facility. When we add the retail return points the access level increases to 99.5%.

Consumer Awareness:

Consumer awareness campaigns with strategic action plans and activities resulted in a net consumer awareness level of 99%.

Consumer Convenience:

Our in-depot Express service 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 2019 we added 37 more locations for a total of 68 Express
sites in the province. In 2019 Encorp also launched Express & GO, unstaffed
drop-off stations where consumers are still able to benefit from the ease and
convenience of Express. 2 Express & GO stations were opened in 2019, one in
Tofino and a second one at SFU's Burnaby Campus.

Environmental Impact Reduction:

Encorp’s activities in 2019 contributed to the reduction of about 104.7 thousand tonnes of CO2 equivalent being released into the atmosphere.

Annual reports from previous years are publically available online as an interactive webpage or PDF download at https://www.return-it.ca/about/annualreports/