By Arthur Weinreb
Tuesday, February 6, 2007
Ontario's program for returning liquor bottles is now in effect. Beginning yesterday, purchasers of spirits were charged an additional 10 to 20 cents a bottle that will be refunded when these bottles are cashed in.
The program was instituted to save our beloved empty mickey and 40 ouncers for recycling. Prior to implementation, those bottles were supposed to be placed in recycling bins. By the time their journey to wherever bottles go had ended, they would most likely be smashed into a zillion pieces and be of no use for recycling purposes. By returning them intact for a refund, the empty bottles can be assured of arriving at their ultimate destination completely unscathed.
The only problem with the return program is that the bottles cannot be returned to the point of purchase. They must be returned to a beer store or as they are unimaginative called, The Beer Store. The reason for this is that the beer stores are already equipped to handle bottle returns.
What we have not been told is exactly how much beer, wine and liquor prices will ultimately go up to cover the additional costs of recycling these bottles. But, knowing governments in general and this Liberal government in particular, we won't have to wait too long to find out.
On a simplistic level, the program that gives people an incentive to return liquor and wine bottles makes sense but it is too early to tell exactly how many people will use the new, deep blue bags that are now handed out at liquor stores to return their bottles.
The program causes no real problems for those people who regularly consume both beer and liquor. They just keep their liquor bottles along with their empty beer bottles until it is time to make another sojourn to The Beer Store. But it's a different story for those who drink liquor who are not beer drinkers. Very few casual drinkers are going to romp down to a beer store, especially if it is not convenient to do so simply to stand in line to get a few cents back. The only alternative is to let them pile up around the house before taking them back. But then the weight of taking a large number of bottles back will be counterproductive to making the trip.
The result will be that many of these bottles will end up where they have ended up before – in recycling boxes. But now these bottles that will be piled up in blue boxes on garbage day will be worth some money. Which brings us to the panhandlers who are proud to call some of Ontario's major cities, home.
Some of the more enterprising transients will now be able to do what can be described as "work". And let's face it, these beggars and the panhandlers aren't what they used to be so it could be considered as a good thing. Fifty years ago panhandlers, many of them war veterans who returned from defending their country with physical or mental disabilities didn't like doing what they were doing. It was easy to feel sorry for them. More importantly, those who had at least one good leg would stand and look you in the eye when they asked for money. Today, those who panhandle are coddled by governments and begging for money is now an acceptable lifestyle choice. Rather than stand, they lie around on sidewalks and expect people to bend down to give them a dollar or two. And what is even more amazing is the number of people who willingly comply. It makes them feel good.
Now the panhandlers will leave the downtown core for residential neighbourhoods to rummage through garbage (ie. recycling bins) in order to retrieve bottles to cash in. What is now a problem downtown will spread throughout the city as the panhandlers travel down side streets in search of abandoned bottles. We will have created a new generation of garbage pickers. Instead of encouraging people to improve their lives, we will make it somewhat easier for them to exist on the streets. But that's what the homeless industry wants.
Obviously this is something that the McGuinty government didn't think about when they came up with their environmentally-friendly refund program. Only time will tell if this does indeed become a major problem.
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