Working together to recover every empty beverage container

Founded in 2010, the Canadian Beverage Container Recycling Association (CBCRA) is a not-for-profit, industry-funded organization whose membership includes beverage brand owners and distributors.

CBCRA’s Recycle Everywhere program promotes beverage container recycling wherever beverages are consumed, both at home and away from home.

CBCRA’s Recycle Everywhere program promotes beverage container recycling wherever beverages are consumed, both at home and away from home. This is done through a two-pronged approach that utilizes a high-level of recycling access through our province-wide away from home beverage container recycling program, paired with an extensive, widespread Promotion and Education outreach program. Manitoba is the only province in Canada that has a province-wide public space beverage container recycling program. Notably, it is also the least expensive beverage recovery system in Canada when viewed on a per capita, per unit or per tonne basis, directly benefiting consumers.

CBCRA has worked tirelessly to grow the Recycle Everywhere program and increase beverage container recovery rates. From one corner of the province to another, Recycle Everywhere has partnered with communities, municipalities, schools, businesses, institutions, parks, and events to provide them with the best Recycle Everywhere bin for their space free of charge.

In addition to recycling accessibility, Recycle Everywhere’s province-wide Promotion & Education (P&E) campaigns, have helped Manitobans make the right decision by recycling their empty beverage containers rather than throwing them in the garbage. The innovative awareness campaigns that CBCRA runs in Manitoba each year engages Manitobans, educating them about what beverage containers can become when recycled, why recycling is important, and how to do it.

CBCRA’s approach, dedication and strong partnerships has resulted in a beverage container recycling program that has achieved significant results in a short time.

Message from the Executive Director

Ken Frisen, Executive Director

While we continued to realize results in Manitoba through increased recycling rates of beverage containers and reduced waste in public spaces and landfills, we seized the opportunity to reinvent CBCRA by designing a comprehensive recycling program for the recovery of beverage containers in blue bins and public space in Ontario. In July 2021, the Ontario government passed a new Blue Box Regulation which defines beverage containers as its own category and sets a target of 75% recovery by 2026 and 80% by 2030. All beverage producers are financially and operationally responsible for the collection and management of Blue Box materials supplied to consumers as of July 1, 2023. To reach these targets, beverage containers consumed both at home and away from home (approximately 30% of the total beverage container generation) will need to be recovered. While residential collection programs exist to recover beverage containers consumed at home, there is need for public space recovery infrastructure and collection. Beverage producers need away from home collection because the curbside system only accounts for approximately 70% of generation. To meet this need, the Canadian Beverage Container Recycling Association (CBCRA) will establish a recovery system in Ontario similar to what was established in Manitoba in 2010. With the addition of this system, producers will be able to comply with the new regulation and targets.

The CBCRA system in Manitoba, which started with virtually no away from home bin infrastructure, is one of Manitoba’s most recognized brands and has achieved the greatest recovery growth of any beverage container recovery system in North America. CBCRA intends to leverage its demonstrated knowledge and expertise in implementing an expansive away from home recovery system in Ontario, supported by a proven Promotion and Education strategy.

As a registered PRO (Producer Responsibility Organization) in Ontario, CBCRA is set to launch a supplemental collection system for the public space sector, which is integral to meeting recovery targets.

While producers will be unable to achieve recovery targets through the Blue Box program alone, CBCRA will ensure that they not only meet their obligations by collecting beverage containers at home, but also away from home in the most cost-efficient way. This plan outlines the steps CBCRA will undertake to ensure that beverage container diversion in Ontario meets the legislated target of 75% through a cohesive and incremental strategy that focuses on the following three elements: Promotion and Education, expanding recycling infrastructure in away-from-home environments, and business intelligence to compile baseline information on recycling behaviour. As demonstrated in the following pages of the 2021 annual report, and despite many challenges along the way, CBCRA has continued to succeed and grow. Together with our dedicated team of staff and board members, I’m proud of what we have accomplished together and all that is yet to come.

Repositioning Our Brand

After 10 incredibly successful years of the CBCRA building the iconic Recycle Everywhere brand in Manitoba, it was time for a change. Our goals were to establish a more serious tone. Not just in advertising, but in our messaging, our relationships with stakeholders, and how we present ourselves.

Interactive Program & Mobile App

In March 2021, Recycle Everywhere launched an incentive program and mobile app that gives back to Manitobans. The Recycle Everywhere Mobile App allows people to track their recycling habits and the positive impact they can make while providing the incentive of a chance to win cash and prizes.

Over the course of the year, more than 25,000 Manitobans downloaded the app. The incentive program awarded almost $180,000 in cash and prizes to nearly 400 Manitobans who used the app to recycle their empty beverage containers.

At the end of the year, through one of many community initiatives, Recycle Everywhere announced it would reward Manitobans for their good recycling habits through its “Season of Giving Back” campaign. In December, for every download and use of the app, $5 went to Harvest Manitoba, up to a total of $15,000. Community response was overwhelming that the total was reached by Dec. 18^the. This was less than three weeks after it was announced, thanks to 3,500 new registered users. Also, for December, each weekly $1,000 app winner got to choose a local charity to also receive $1,000 from Recycle Everywhere.

The response to our incentive program and mobile app is greatly appreciated. It helps move us closer to the government-mandated goal of recovering

0 %

of all empty beverage containers sold in Manitoba.

How It Works

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CBCRA Participants

CBCRA works closely with beverage producers and distributors supplying into Manitoba, they are charged the Container Recycling Fee for every non-alcoholic, non-dairy beverage container sold in the province. The fee funds the Recycle Everywhere program and pays for up to 80 per cent of the cost to collect and process beverage containers in the residential recycling programs.

CBCRA Participants as of December 2021

A. Lassonde Inc

Acklands Grainger Inc

Amazon.com.ca, Inc

Amway Canada Corporation

Arctic Beverages LP

Arctic Connection

Arctic Co-operatives Limited

Arthur Roger & Associetes Inc

Athletic Brewing Co. Canada ULC

Bulk Barn Foods Limited

Cabela’s Retail Canada Inc.

Campbell Company Of Canada

Canada Dry Mott’s Inc.

Canadian Tire

CanAqua Inc

Casseroles Cora Inc.

Coca-Cola Refreshments Canada Company

Complete Distribution Services LTD.

Corpell’s Water A

COSTCO WHOLESALE CANADA LTD

Curved Distribution Inc.

Danone Canada

Dewpoint Bottling Company Ltd.

Dollar Tree Stores Canada

Dollarama LP

EDOKO FOOD IMPORTERS LTD

Federated Co-Operatives Limited

Fortune Foods Winnipeg ULC

Ice River Springs Water Co.

ID Foods Corporation

IKEA Canada Limited Partnership

Inform Brokerage Inc.

KOHL & FRISCH LIMITED

Kraft Heinz Canada ULC

Labatt Brewing Company Ltd

Loblaw Companies Ltd

London Drugs Limited

Malinda Distributors Inc

McKesson Canada

National Dry Company Ltd

Nestle Canada Inc.

Nestle Waters Canada

Pepsi Bottling Group Canada

Red Bull Canada Ltd

Refresco Canada Inc

RW Consumer Products Ltd.

Saputo Dairy Products Canada G.P.

Save On Foods Limited Partnership

Shoppers Drug Mart Inc.

Sky Blue Water Inc.

Sobeys

Star Marketing Ltd.

Sunrise Markets Inc. dba Sunrise Soya Foods

SYSCO FOOD SERVICE, WINNIPEG

Temple Lifestyle Inc

The Minute Maid Canada of Company Inc.

The North West Company LP

Tle’ Nax T’Awei Limited Partnership

Tree of Life Canada ULC

Triton Water Canada Holdings Inc.

United Natural Foods Canada Inc

UNO FOODS INC. 2

Veritiv Canada, Inc.

Wal-mart Canada Corp.

Well Juicery Canada Ltd

Wild Sparkling Tea Ltd.

Wm.Bolthouse Farms Inc.

Beverage Container Sales

Material Type	Units
Alumnium	218,723,238
PET Plastic	255,999,918
HDPE	5,187,415
All other plastic containers	2,357,771
Glass	3,841,661
Metal	888,540
Aseptics	38,446,196
Gabletop	5,389,743
Drink Pouches	14,113,904
Bag-in-a-Box	14,360
	544,962,746

Performance Highlights

72% of all beverage containers and

0 %

of all PET plastic beverage containers were recovered

The recovery rate for PET plastic beverage containers in Manitoba has been consistently high over the past few years and ranks among Canada’s best.

The CBCRA Street Team travels across Manitoba throughout the year to promote beverage container recycling at festivals, sporting events and community activities. In addition to games, giveaways and educational material, the team also brings recycling infrastructure to make Manitoba events green and clean.

Whether it be a park, event, community centre or streetscape, CBCRA makes it easy for Manitobans to recycle in their community. Over 70,000 Recycle Everywhere bins can now be found in public spaces across the province. By providing recycling infrastructure free of charge to partners, we are able to divert millions of beverage containers from ending up in landfills.

Focusing on the top five sectors that employ the most Manitobans – manufacturing, finance & insurance, retail, health care/social assistance, accommodation/food services – CBCRA has extensively conducted generation and recovery audits. The results provide behavioural information to understand what is preventing material from getting to material recovery facilities (MRF).

We shipped 24,262 SFD bins to Rural Manitoba. And 9,354 were shipped within Winnipeg.

Our Mini Bin program is designed to increase beverage container recycling in Manitoba’s Multi-Family Dwellings (MFDs), such as apartment buildings and condos.

The Bin Bag is a light-weight, structured yet collapsible recycling bag, with fabric handles which makes it easy to carry. It has extra capacity to store more recyclables and is reusable for those who spend longer periods of time at the lake over the summer months. Designed by CBCRA staff, the Bin Bag is an example of the innovative culture that permeates CBCRA.

Good recycling behaviour starts at a young age. Children are future recycling champions and crusaders who will lead the way for generations to come. With this in mind, CBCRA launched the Recycle Everywhere 101 (RE101) program in 2013, a free program open to all Manitoba schools to increase beverage container recycling rates.

In addition, we focus on regional-specific programming in Northern Manitoba.

In the spring of 2021, the Canadian Beverage Container Recycling Association (CBCRA) partnered with the Thompson Recycling Centre and Multi-Material Stewardship Manitoba (MMSM) to launch an educational campaign on recycling stream contamination.

The Thompson Recycling Centre, a hub for recycling in Northern Manitoba,
experiences significant issues with items that don’t belong in the recycling stream. This causes contamination at-home and away-from-home.

CBCRA makes it easy for Manitobans to recycle when they’re out in the community – including provincial parks.

The Clean Manitoba initiative leverages our relationships with communities, strategic partners and individuals to accomplish several objectives. They include:

Increasing recycling awareness
Litter reduction
Recovery of empty beverage containers (along with other recyclables)

The Recycle Everywhere program provides participants with the necessary supplies to safely conduct community clean-up initiatives.

Board of Directors

Our volunteer Board of Directors is made up of highly experienced representatives from the soft drink, juice, bottled water, and retail sectors. Combined, these members have served, and continue to serve, on many different beverage stewardship boards across Canada. Their expertise and knowledge help guide and shape the organization and its programs.