Bottle recovery and recycling data available

A new report commissioned by the Environment and Plastics Industry Council (EPIC) provides a detailed overview of plastic bottle recovery and recycling rates in Canada. Key findings from the report show that the recovery rate for plastic beverage and non-beverage bottles is 36%. For beverage bottles only, the recovery rate is 48%.
The report shows that those provinces with a deposit-return system account for the greatest percentage of recovered beverage bottles. The average recovery rate for beverage bottles in deposit-return programs is 75%, while the average in non-deposit programs is 33%.
One of the contributing factors for this could be the fact that an estimated 63% of all PET beverage containers are generated "away-from-home."
The report also highlights the fact that only 22% of non-beverage PET and HDPE bottles were recovered and recycled in 2002.
Good news — the recovery rate for HDPE milk jugs varies from 38 to 63% in those provinces that monitor milk jug recovery. This works out to an overall milk jug recovery rate of 50%. Similarly, recovery rates for plastic motor oil bottles vary from 18 to 45% in western provinces, where programs exist.
The report, entitled "An Overview of Plastic Bottle Recycling in Canada" is available free of charge and is posted under the "Reports & Technical Material” of the “Publications" section of the EPIC web site, www.plastics.ca/epic. EPIC is a council of the Canadian Plastics Industry Association (Mississauga, ON).