Connecting with Consumers: 2018 Annual Report
This year, we celebrate 25 years and 20 billion beverage containers diverted from the landfill. We have been able to accomplish this through the support of our employees and partners over the years.
Every year, we publish an annual report as a point of accountability for our stewardship targets and expectations. The Encorp Stewardship Plan covers all ready-to-drink beverage containers for soft drinks, juice, water, wine, coolers and spirits, plus non-refillable beer bottles sold in British Columbia – all in accordance with BC’s Recycling Regulation. The 2018 Annual Report is now published and publically available online as an interactive webpage or PDF download!
We are proud of our accomplishments in 2018. Here is a brief summary of what we have accomplished:
Recovery Rate:
Increase in our 2018 recovery rate to 77.4%, 2.4% above the regulated requirement of 75%. Over 1 billion containers were collected.
The regional breakdown can be found in section 6.2 of the Annual Report.
Collection System, Facilities & Consumer access:
With a collection network of 170 Return-It Depots, 98.6% of B.C.’s population has access to a beverage container return facility. When we add the retail return points the access level increases to 99.5%.
Consumer Awareness:
Consumer awareness campaign with strategic action plans and activities resulted in a net consumer awareness level of 99%.
Consumer Convenience:
Since 1999, we have undertaken market research on an annual basis to understand the key drivers for improving recovery rates by understanding consumer behaviour and how to reduce the level of throw away behavior. Through our research, we know that education and convenience are the most important motivators for recycling. In 2018 we added 11 more locations for a total of 31 Express sites in the province.
Environmental Impact Reduction:
Encorp’s activities in 2018 contributed to the reduction of about 102.6 thousand tonnes of CO2 equivalent being released into the atmosphere. To read more about our initiatives in 2018, the full version of the Annual Report can be found at www.returnit.ca/ar2018