WATCH: Working to get more plastics out of the landfill

• Milk and plant-based beverages now part of the deposit system
• The 10-cent deposit will be refunded when empties are returned

A 10-cent deposit is now being charged on "ready-to-drink" milk and plant-based beverages, in an effort to add these containers to well over a billion others kept out of the landfill each year.

The deposit will be refunded when the empty containers are returned for recycling at Return-It sites across B.C.

Interim president and CEO of Encorp Pacific Canada, John Nixon, told Kelowna10 the intention is to treat “ready to drink” milk beverages, the same as every other kind of beverage.

“The intention is to recover as many of those as possible and get them recycled, so that those plastic containers are not going to landfills or otherwise into the environment,” Nixon said.

According to Nixon, the deposit system is very popular with the public and consumers.

“Adding milk containers is just one more way to make sure we’re serving the environment here in British Columbia,” Nixon added.

He said last year, they recovered somewhere in the order of 1.3 billion containers in their system.

“All of those containers that are recovered are recycled, and therefore, not in one way or another having a negative impact on the environment,” Nixon said.

Consumers are asked to rinse the milk containers before they are brought back for returns, as well as to keep the container undamaged.

“The depots need to be able to read things like the expiry date on the products, so they know whether it's eligible or not for a refund, and the other thing is they need to be able to read the barcodes,” Nixon said.

There are charitable groups and individuals who rely on redeemable containers to support themselves, and according to Nixon, the newly added milk container deposit could help them out.

“If anything, this will be an increase in what those folks would be receiving, simply by the fact that there is a significant number of milk containers that would now be providing them with a deposit,” Nixon said