PNE and Return-It Partnership

Over the past 15 years, research conducted by Encorp has consistently shown that “heavy discarders” of beverage containers are located in high traffic locations within urban areas. One of the main reasons cited for throwing away empty beverage containers is the lack of available infrastructure while "on-the-go".

Over the past 3 years, the Pacific National Exhibition (PNE) has been building a sustainability plan to support the City of Vancouver’s Greenest Action Plan. The plan is focused on 3 priority pillars that the PNE is working towards with its partners in delivering maximum impact on site and within the community. These 3 pillars are:

• Zero Waste
• Green Buildings
• Green Lifestyle

The PNE and Encorp understand that together they can accelerate the impact of their sustainability efforts. For this, these institutions have partnered to improve dedicated infrastructure of refundable beverage containers within the PNE’s premises.

The program aims to allow the public to easily find clearly marked bins for disposal of empty beverage containers. Clear measures of program success and long term implementation are the basis for this program.

In 2016, the first phase of the project was implemented focusing on targeting the Fair at the PNE. The program significantly improved the total number of empty beverage containers collected (double fold) allowing the PNE to also improve other diversion streams in the process. We are excited to note that for this year the program will be expanded to run during the full year of PNE operations and will include more dedicated bins and proper signage to keep improving diversion.

Science of Fun

Our Return-It 101 Ambassadors were at the PNE's Science of Fun where school kids from across BC got to explore Playland while working on an educational project.  The kids got to learn about beverage container recycling and even had a surprise visit from Return-It Man.