District council mulls milk returns
The District of North Vancouver will ask the province to consider attaching a refundable deposit to milk containers.
District council voted 5-2 in support of writing a letter to B.C.’s environment minister Terry Lake, asking the province to expand its container deposit and refund program to include all milk containers and those of dairy substitutes like soy and rice beverages.
Mayor Richard Walton and councillors Doug MacKay-Dunn, Alan Nixon, Robin Hicks and Lisa Muri voted in favour of drafting the letter to the province, while councillors Mike Little and Roger Bassam voted against the motion.
The two dissenters cited inefficiencies in the two-stream recycling system of refundables and blue-box recyclables, as well as the added cost to milk-consuming families the deposit might accrue if containers weren’t returned regularly.
Coun. Bassam even floated the idea of eliminating the deposit-refund program altogether, suggesting instead that a simplified and streamlined blue-box system for all recyclable materials would be more efficient than a letter asking for what he called a further tax on milk.
Coun. MacKay-Dunn initially came out against sending the letter in support of expanding the refund program to milk containers, but supported an amendment which will see council send a letter that asks the province to simply consider the issue from the different points of view heard at Monday’s district council meeting.
All ready-to-drink beverage containers currently sold in B.C. are covered by the program except for those containing milk and milk substitutes.
tcoyne@northshoreoutlook.com
twitter.com/toddcoyne
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