Fewer beer, wine and spirit containers are being returned in Ontario, the Star has found, leading to rising unclaimed bottle and can deposits that now amount to least $57 million last year alone.
Ontario consumers failed to return 150 million alcohol containers sold at the LCBO to The Beer Store in 2024, according to a report by The Beer Store, empties that translate into at least $20 million in unredeemed deposits.
The containers were sold at the LCBO, and deposits charged to consumers, as part of the province’s Ontario Deposit Return Program.
According to the same stewardship report, another 372 million deposits were never claimed on containers sold in 2024 at The Beer Store, which has run its own internal deposit system — separate from the provincial ODRP — since 1927.
In all, the unclaimed deposits total at least $57 million, money that is kept by the province, according to the latest ODRP agreement, and The Beer Store (TBS).
The revenue has never really been questioned, one expert said, because the deposit programs — both of which are managed by The Beer Store — were viewed as valuable assets.
But now, with more than 130 Beer Stores shuttered since 2024, there are fewer places consumers can return empties to get deposits back.
An environmental organization wants to know why the beer retailer isn’t more accountable to the public when it comes to deposit redemptions, which the organization expects will go down.
“The question is, if The Beer Store’s performance decreases because fewer people return their containers — because there’s fewer places to return them — what is the penalty for that?” said Karen Wirsig, a senior program manager at the non-profit Environmental Defence. “And there really isn’t one.”
In Ontario, redemptions for LCBO empties through The Beer Store were already falling, from a high of 80.2 per cent in 2017 to 74 per cent in 2024, according to stewardship reports dating back to 2017 that were available on the company’s website until Thursday. The reports have since been removed.
The same trend is true for The Beer Store’s internal deposit program, once viewed as the gold standard.
Last year, the program had a 76 per cent return rate, down from 95 per cent about 15 years ago, before a limited number of grocery stores were first allowed to sell alcohol starting in 2015.
However, the beer retailer will continue to manage the ODRP until at least the end of 2030. It will also handle returns for grocers, who were supposed to set up return programs this January in exchange for being allowed to sell alcohol, but instead contracted the work out to The Beer Store.
The LCBO pays a 17 cent service fee to The Beer Store when containers that were not originally sold by The Beer Store, including glass, plastic, cans, tetra and bag-in-box wines, are returned.
The new deal with grocers requires them to pay 17 cents to The Beer Store for every beer sold, regardless of whether the container is returned.
“The Ontario Deposit Return Program (ODRP) supports high recovery rates, reduces litter, and helps to keep costs down for consumers by supporting the efficient drop off and collection of alcoholic containers,” said Scott Blodgett, a senior spokesperson for the Ministry of Finance.
The Beer Store said it uses the deposit money it receives to fund its internal return program, which it said in both 2024 and 2025 resulted in the return of approximately 1.6 billion alcohol containers.
“Unredeemed deposits help sustain Ontario’s deposit return system by funding the collection, transportation and recycling of containers, as well as the operation of return locations,” said Ozzie Ahmed, the vice president of retail for The Beer Store, in an email.
Ahmed said his company is “working to add new return partners and explore additional locations across Ontario.”
Environmentalists say the best way to increase rates under the ODRP is through a mandatory full-scale deposit system on all beverage containers, programs that are being instituted throughout Europe and are already in a number of other Canadian provinces, an opinion shared by the Canadian Beverage Association.
“In jurisdictions across Canada, deposit return systems are proven and effective ways to facilitate the return of beverage containers, with some programs achieving recovery rates of over 80 per cent,” said the organization in an email, noting that it cannot comment on the future of the Ontario Deposit Return Program (ODRP).
In some European countries, those rates have been higher than 90 per cent, including in Germany, Norway, and Lithuania. In Lithuania’s case, its return rate increased from 34 per cent to 92 per cent two years after a deposit program was introduced, with all retailers that sell beverages required to take back containers.
In Ontario, there are nearly 10,000 locations in the province selling alcohol since sales were expanded, according to provincial data.
In contrast, there are 800 bottle return locations in the province, including The Beer Store, LCBO Convenience Outlets and empty bottle dealers.
Wirsig said that up until now, The Beer Store has provided an important public service by managing the Ontario Deposit Return Program.
“This only comes to a head now because the province has changed the economics of alcohol sales and therefore the location of alcohol sales,” said Wirsig, “without requiring in the end that the new sellers of alcohol also participate in taking back empties.”
