What does "rethink" mean in BC?

By Jay Arthur

About five years ago, I wrote a column in this august journal entitled Look Twice at that Gift Horse, BC.
The piece was written in response to concerns that our beacon of common sense and sound planning when it comes to things blue (boxes in particular) was about to lose its virtue.
Men in suits and big black cars were rumoured to coming to town from the east, offering baubles to the natives in exchange for changes in local customs.
One of the problems with men in suits from the east is that they don't quite get the BC approach to life, or indeed any approach to life that doesn't come from an address with a Toronto postal code.
It may be the mountains, the sea air, or who knows, even the second hand "smoke" drifting down for the hippies in the Interior. Either way, people tend to think differently west of the Rockies.
So when the suits did arrive and brought stories of the breath-taking performance of the packaging recovery system that saw between one third and one half of the containers diverted from landfill, the locals were indeed aghast.
"Is that all?" they asked, truly breathless. It was indeed awesome. Not the performance, you understand, so much as the nerve.
The locals checked their own numbers--two thirds to three quarters with a deposit system-and it wasn't long before their respiratory systems, and their efficient blue box system,  returned to normal.
Meanwhile, the men in suits left town and returned to their postal code to think again.
It wasn't long before more missionaries were expedited to the western colonies. And this time they brought suitcases full of cash.
Money talks, and there had been many conversations with money-strapped municipalities in Ontario during the 1990s. They were cash-strapped by a poor economy and then by Premier Robbin' Harris, who stole from the poor and gave to

the rich. It was good time to have a suitcase full of cash.
But money did not talk in BC. Even in the face of  a $5 million signing bonus , BC said no thanks, we'll do it our way, and shrines in its honour were built all over the country.
In the past few years, however things have changed and there is a bit of a concern  that the men in suits and their ambassadors may be spending a lot of time in the chief's house.
At the end of last year it became evident that the level of diversion enjoyed by the BC depot system needed improvement. Like all deposit programs, it relied on the incentive of the returned cash to motivate behaviour.
As the economy grows and inflation grows with it, that five cents, or ten cents deposit may not be enough to get the job done.
There is no science here. Many jurisdictions in the United States have seen this happening and some--after great battles with industry usually--have succeeded in increasing their deposits and recovery rates have improved.
It is entirely understandable that industry doesn't want to see the price of its products increased, but since it would affect all the competition too so this out-dated ideology should be retired. Yet we fight it every single time we try to do the right thing. And no one is going to stop drinking pop because of a five-cent price increase (that is redeemable).
So when the organization that runs the depot system tells a Recycling Council of British Columbia audience it is time to "rethink recycling", what do we make of that?
And when the idea of increasing deposits is met with "industry wouldn't like that", what do we make of that?
It is all very well the BC Government taking a hands-off approach to this kind of thing but if the price it pays is to lose its beacon status, no one wins.
BC still has the best example of a hybrid system in the country, and if they could do something about milk containers more shrines would surely follow.
I note the new e-waste program relies on advanced disposal fees to cover the cost of managing the program, and that the existing container depots, among others, will be used for the return of the computers. But without a deposit up front, what incentive do consumers have to take them back?

How long will it be, I wonder, before the "rethinking" means losing deposits for containers, too.