Our Environmental Impact-ipad

Our Environmental Impact

The Beer Store has one of the world’s most effective alcohol container recycling programs. In collaboration with brewers, commodity buyers, and Ontarians, we ensure that our recycling system upholds the highest standards of sustainability.

Learn more about the environmental impact of returning your empty alcohol containers to The Beer Store and see how every container you return makes a difference:

  1. We take back more than we sell by accepting all alcohol containers and packaging across the province, including beer, wine, and spirits bottles, cans, kegs, cardboard packaging, bottle caps, and plastic rings. Any alcohol, as long as it was sold in Ontario.

  2. Every year, we reuse and recycle approximately 1.7 billion containers.1. You might be wondering what that number means—well:

    • 201,689 tonnes of avoided greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) is equivalent to:

      • 7,045 cars taken off the roads in Ontario in one year2

      • Energy use of 27,086 homes for an entire year2

      • 71,268 tons of waste recycled instead of landfilled2

      • Same amount of carbon that would be absorbed or "sequestered" by 202,306 acres of forests in one year2

    • Over 2 million Avoided Energy Consumption (GJ) across all materials1

(1) 'Source for the stats: The Beer Store Annual Stewardship Report, 2023.'

(2) 'Source for emissions equivalency: EPA Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies Calculator, 2025'

  1. Thanks to our recycling program, breweries have the opportunity to receive their bottles back and reuse them up to 15 times. This reduces the need for new glass production and eliminates the energy costs associated with manufacturing new bottles

  2. In 2023, we had an impressive recovery rate of 98% on refillable beer bottles.

  3. With your empty returns and other type of donations, you’ve helped raise over $1.6 million through donations.

Here’s how the containers are recycled and re-used

Aluminum Cans

  • Recycled into new aluminum sheets, which can be used to make new aluminum cans.

  • Aluminum cans are infinitely recyclable.

  • New beer cans are back on store shelves in just 60 days.

Refillable Glass Bottles

  • All refillable glass bottles are sent back to the breweries, and after undergoing an extensive sanitation process, they can be refilled up to 15 times.

  • After 15 uses, the refillable glass bottles are recycled into new glass bottles or other products.

Clear Glass

Recycled into new glass bottles.

Coloured Glass

Recycled into new coloured glass bottles and fiberglass.

Plastic Bottles

Recycled into plastic strapping and felted automotive parts and other miscellaneous plastic products.