Following the criticisms made by O-I Canada of the decline in the amount of glass for "bottle-to-bottle" recycling from Ontario, it has emerged that in neighboring Quebec province the liquor board (SAQ) is refusing to place wine & liquor bottles in a deposit-refund system, even though most of the bottles in the province end up in the garbage & not in recycling bins. O-I Canada wrote to the Stewardship Ontario Blue Box Funding Review Committee Jan/06 to highlight the loss it says the single-stream recycling system is causing to the amount of glass waste suitable for "bottle-to-bottle" recycling. Of the 115,000/t recycled glass utilized by OI Canada in 2005 only 46% was sourced from Ontario, down from 80% in 2004. In its letter, O-I restated the recommendation of the Association of Municipalities of Ontario in December 2005 that a deposit-refund system be adopted. Deposit-refund systems offer the advantage that many of the bottles can be kept intact and refilled by domestic producers. Also, the glass of different colors is kept separate, allowing more glass to be recycled bottle-to-bottle and not end up being "downcycled" into low-value aggregate for construction.
