15 Years

Alberta Beverage Container Recycling Corporation (ABCRC) is celebrating its 15th and would like to thank Albertans for recycling more than 11 billion empty beverage containers since 1995.

“Albertans should be proud of this amazing accomplishment,” said Guy West, President of ABCRC. “That is a tremendous amount of empties. I would like to thank everyone on the positive environmental impact that they made to our province. Over the years Albertans have certainly done their part to help the environment of our province.”

Beverage containers have been recycled in the province since 1972, but in February, 1995 there was a new beginning for beverage container stewardship in Alberta. Manufacturers, through ABCRC purchased the assets of Contain-A-Way Ltd. from AGRA Industries and began operating as ABCRC Ltd. in the role of the collection system agent of the common collection system.

A lot has changed in the 15 years, especially the volumes sold and recovered through the system.

  • 1997 – aseptic packaging (tetra paks and gable top containers) were regulated;
  • 2001 – domestic beer containers were regulated (stewardship of import beer was transferred from ABCRC to Alberta Beer Container Corporation);
  • 2008 – milk and cream containers were regulated – to enter the system on June 1, 2009; and
  • 2009 – ABCRC enters into a service provider agreement with ABCC to process all non-refillable beer containers (with an anticipated consolidation of collection system agents by January 1, 2011.)
  • The population of Alberta grew from just over 2.6 million people in 1995 to over 3.4 million in 2007 (last available census data).
  • The total volumes recovered by ABCRC between July 2009 and September 15, 2009 were roughly equal to the annual volumes recovered in the calendar year 1995.

Container Volume Comparison

Excluding Aseptic
& Milk		 All Containers
Manufacturer Sales – 2009 1.4 billion 1.5 billion
Growth over 1995 193.1% 225.3%
Recovered Volumes 1.1 billion 1.2 billion
Growth over 1995 193.4% 210.6%
Return Rate – 2009 81.1% 77.3%
Return Rate – 1995 81.0% 81.0%

To get a sense of what we’ve been up to in 15 years, have a look at our timeline .