All refillable beer or cider bottles and aluminum alcohol cans can be returned for a refund. We also accept your related alcohol packaging. In fact, we prefer empty containers to be returned in their original case since they are purposely designed to be shipped back to the brewery. FOR MORE DETAILS, CLICK HERE.

Yes. These can be returned to container redemption facilities and retailers selling beverage alcohol. Please note that these containers are not part of the BRCCC program but accepted under a different program.

The deposit on all beverage alcohol containers under 1L is 10 cents. Alcohol cans that are 1L or greater have a deposit of 20 cents. You should receive that amount back when you return your empty containers. BC brewers pay out that amount for each can or bottle we recover – the location collecting your containers should be reimbursing you that amount.

British Columbia’s brewers are committed to being responsible stewards of the environment. They have structured their operations to ensure that, with each step in the brewing and retail process, they are minimizing the impact on the environment. One way they do this is by ensuring that 100% of packaging used by brewers is either reusable or recyclable.

A key element is the use of the environmentally-preferable refillable bottle, which is refilled an average of 15 times before being recycled into a new glass bottle. This reduces the amount of waste in our landfills. It also reduces the amount of energy associated with beer packaging. Overall, the industry does its part to be efficient and sustainable while supporting the circular economy.

Beer containers returned at retail locations are collected by brewers at the same time (and in the same truck) that delivers full beer containers to the retail location. Combining product delivery with container pick-up minimizes the number of trucks on the road reducing the carbon footprint. It also helps to reduce costs to consumers.

BRCCC values providing consumers with choice by having a diversified collection system to allow for returns to liquor retail sites so that consumers can return containers at the same location where they purchased them in addition to strategically located depots throughout the province. Licensing more depots with a diversified system will make the system less efficient by decreasing the need for backhauling of empty containers. Greater system efficiency allows for less cost burden to the consumer and generates lower greenhouse gases – please refer to the response of the previous question. BRCCC also ensures a high accessibility rate. In fact, 92% of BC consumers (or over 4 million BC residents) are within a 15-minute drive of an authorized BRCCC return location.

Alcoholic cans and non-alcoholic cans may seem to be same when in fact they are very different in terms of how these containers are transported and managed for recycling. When you return empties through BRCCC’s collection system, you utilize the brewers’ distribution and retail networks that manages the transportation of full goods and empties to maximize efficiencies and significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions! BRCCC has also long-practiced crushing cans before shipping to optimize transportation routes and to reduce the need for more trucks on the road.

The collection of aluminum alcohol cans is an important part of BRCCC’s system to provide sufficient volume to transport containers appropriately. Without cans in BRCCC’s system, many of the efficiencies of the system are lost, making it more costly – both environmentally and economically – to support the refillable bottle system. BRCCC’s collection system utilizes the brewers’ distribution and retail networks, which manages the transportation of full goods and empties to maximize efficiencies and keeps the carbon footprint as low as possible.