In reality, the glass that goes into the recycling bin most often breaks, and arrives at the sorting centers in the form of glass shards or glass powder, where it mixes with other materials. As a result, its quality is significantly reduced, and it is mainly recycled as cover material in landfill sites, as abrasive products or, to a lesser extent, as a substitute material in bitumen and concrete. Another part is sold on international markets.

To be able to recycle glass in the form of glass containers, it would have to be sorted at source...

And what about the deposit?

There is usually some confusion between the terms. More often than not, we think of deposit = reuse, and selective collection (the green bin) = recycling.
However, the deposit does not only apply to reusable containers (commonly known as refillable containers, or RSCs). Only brown beer bottles are intended to be refilled. This is a private deposit, managed by the brewers. All other returnable containers (clear beer bottles, aluminum cans, plastic soft-drink containers) are recovered for recycling.

Incidentally, if a deposit were placed on wine bottles, it wouldn't be to return them to the producers on the other side of the oceans (as I thought until recently)! The idea of sorting at source would be to increase the quality of the materials and keep them in Quebec.

Recovery islands, as installed in Europe and Japan, also fulfil this function.

The thorny question of costs remains... The government has announced a study for 2013 on selective collection and deposit systems, including environmental, social and economic aspects, which will compare the performance of the two systems and evaluate the option of increasing the deposit. So the debate is on. It remains to be seen how the new Minister for Sustainable Development, David Heurtel, will position himself on the subject.

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