Dear editor:

As a retired executive from the LCBO, I remember when beverage alcohol bottle return was shifted from a perfectly well-functioning household recycling system to the Beer Store because they already had a recycling system in place for their own beer bottles and the LCBO did not.

This was part of an agreement with them that allowed them to continue their monopoly on selling 12s and 24s of beer even though they were wholly foreign-owned.

It seemed that the Beer Store could always negotiate their way into continuing their monopoly and thus their existence.

Things have changed. Now there are many outlets for beer and wine in grocery and convenience stores.

The Beer Store is gradually closing down especially in smaller towns and its recycling program is going with it.

I live in NOTL and there is no beer store. They closed it a long, long time ago. What do I do?

I pay the deposit on beverage alcohol bottles and then throw them out in the recycling box because it’s easier. I don’t know what happens to them next. I don’t care. I just hope they don’t end up in the landfill.

The deposit doesn’t make me save them and it doesn’t make me remember to drive them all the way to St. Catharines or Niagara Falls.

I have a hunch that most people who don’t have a convenient place to return them feel the same way. And that’s just going to get worse the less places there are to take them.

The LCBO (you, actually) is already paying the Beer Store for this service and that amount does not decrease as the Beer Store closes its network of stores.

So do all the bottles get recycled? I have no idea.

One thing I know for sure is that it would cost a fortune (paid by the Ontario taxpayers) for the LCBO to set up a recycling system and the LCBO may go the way of the Beer Store eventually anyway.

So if you believe in recycling, the only way for a permanent solution is to increase the municipal recycling system (in which case you pay) or have the retailers recycle (in which you will probably still pay through higher prices). If you care about the environment, you should choose one.