Alberta bottle depots start offering refunds on reusable takeout food containers

This summer brings a big boost to a Calgary company’s efforts to help the environment.

The bottle depot system that gets people recycling bottles and cans is now expanding to include takeout food containers.

The containers originate from Calgary-based Earthware Reusables Inc., which provides them to restaurants.

After paying a deposit fee included on the bill for their food, the customers can then return the containers for a refund at several bottles depots in southern Alberta.

“The depots return them to us, we take them to our wash facility (where) we wash, sanitize, inspect them and then we sell them back to the restaurants again,” Earthware founder John MacInnes said. “And then it all starts again.”

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The program has just expanded from 13 bottle depots in Calgary to include bottle depots in Banff, Canmore and Airdrie.

“If we use the beverage containers as a base, we’re close to 85 per cent recycling,” Airdrie Bottle Depot owner Gagandeep Johal said. “So people are very aware of landfills and diverting stuff from landfills.”

It’s hoped the incentive of getting a refund on the deposit on the takeout containers will get more people involved in reusing them.

“There’s a big single-use plastic problem in the world and this is taking great steps,” Johal said.

Earthware is planning to expand the program to bottle depots in Edmonton within the next few weeks.

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“What we’re really proud of is that we’re totally reducing takeout containers going into landfills,” MacInnes said.

Wonton King restaurants in Calgary are among the food outlets taking part in Earthware’s reusable container program.

Wonton King manager Hardeep Kaur says Earthware’s containers are a welcome alternative to using compostable containers.

“If we are going to spend the extra money, we’d rather spend it on something where we’re supporting a local business and we’re actually seeing the change,” Kaur said.

“We can hopefully help our future generations. Obviously we don’t want them to have a super-polluted planet.”

For Wonton King customers, getting a deposit back leaves a sweet taste.

“I like doing recycling, right, so me and my daughter, we do recycling every single week,” customer Michael Adu said. “So it’s a great idea that they have this one included into the system.”

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