By Barbara Stewart - Staff Writer for the Wetaskiwin Times Advertiser - September 15, 1997

Juice boxes are no longer garbage.
The province started a recycling program for aseptic juice and drink boxes and wax paperboard juice containers September 01. Now, like other drink containers, buyers pay a deposit on them at the store and can return the containers for a deposit refund. Mohamad Rekieh of Wetaskiwin Bottle Depot said the changes have been in the works for the past four years, but one of the chief manufacturers of juice boxes, Tetra-Pak, lobbied the government not to include their product because they were looking for another recycling method.
“They stretched it out for three-and-a half years and then this year the government said you’re included whether you like it or not,” said Rekieh.
He noted consumers don’t lose on this system. “The money you pay today, you get back tomorrow.”
But even more changes are coming to Alberta’s container recycling program, which was established in 1972. By the end of the year the industry will have set up a board to administer the system. The government set regulations will be enforced through that board, said Rekieh.
Alberta’s 209 bottle depots recovered 600 million containers last year, he added. That’s estimated to be about 80 to 85 percent recovery.
Rekieh said the good recovery rate is due to a system that’s “second to none.”
Recycling facilities like his are paid top dollar to properly sort the containers and consumers get a complete refund on the deposit.
Plastic pop bottles and cans are melted down and then reshaped into new containers or into other by-products. Rekieh said plastic is often used in the manufacture of carpets. Juice boxes are made of foil on the inside and cardboard on the outside and both parts are recycled.
“None of the products received here go to the landfill,” he noted, adding Wetaskiwin Bottle Depot takes all ready to drink beverage containers, except milk containers.