Honourable David Tsubouchi
Minister of Consumer & Commercial Relations
250 Yonge Street, 35th Floor
M5B 2N5
Dear Minister Tsubouchi,
Thank you for your letter of August 31, 1998, in which you suggest that LCBO containers are an insignificant waste management problem in the province. I am surprised by this view, especially since LCBO containers are real and significant contributors to the current crisis facing municipal recovery programs and landfills across the province.
The Citizens' Network on Waste Management is disappointed that your letter does not address the significant problems that LCBO containers cause for municipal curbside programs. Your letter fails to mention that LCBO glass accounts for approximately 40% of all glass recovered in municipal Blue Box programs and 80% to 90% of all coloured glass.
Municipalities view LCBO glass as a significant financial drain threatening the very future of curbside pick-up. This is because collecting glass is not well suited to curbside co-collection and causes material contamination problems. A large percentage of the glass collected in comingled collection systems ends up broken, mixed and of little or no financial value. For example, colour separated glass cullet currently has a market value ranging from $28 to $45 per tonne while mixed cullet collected from curbside programs has almost no financial value at all.
In addition to improving the financial viability of the Blue Box program, LCBO containers in a deposit-return system would significantly improve the amount of glass recycled in Ontario. Consumers Glass has recently reported a decrease in the recycled content in its new glass containers from 34% both in 1993 and 1994 to 29% in 1996. This worrisome trend could easily be reversed with a supply of consistently clean (separated) LCBO recovered glass from a deposit-return system. By our calculation, an LCBO deposit-refund system recovering 85% of containers would generate sufficient additional glass cullet to increase Consumers Glass recycled content use back to the 34% level last achieved in 1994.
We trust the additional information we have provided to you will be of value to you as your ministry comes to terms with ensuring that the LCBO assumes full responsibility for its environmental impact on the province's municipal waste management programs, landfills and ecosystems.
In closing, we urge you as the owner of the LCBO to ensure that the board assumes the responsibility for the packaging choices it makes and from which it profits ($475 million in fiscal 1998). This is the same standard that socially and environmentally conscious citizens demand of all corporations, public or private. It is discouraging to see Ontario beginning to fall far behind many other parts of the world in the creation of a positive framework to encourage responsible and sustainable environmental stewardship.
The Citizens' Network on Waste Management calls on you to take a leadership position on product and packaging stewardship by transforming the LCBO from a laggard to a standard bearer for other Ontario businesses to follow.
Sincerely,
John Jackson
Coordinator
Cc: Honourable Mike Harris
Honourable Norm Sterling
