SARCAN: Promoting Recycling and the Employment of Disabled People in Saskatchewan

The Policy in Brief

Economic Instrument: A deposit refund scheme.

Problem: Low recycling rates in Saskatchewan and low job opportunities for disabled people.

Goal: Increased recycling and the employment of disadvantaged people.

Description: A beverage container recycling program that began with aluminum cans and has now expanded to include all ready-to-serve beverage containers except milk cartons. Aside from its environmental benefits, the program provides considerable employment benefits to disabled people.

Administering Institution: Saskatchewan Association of Rehabilitation Centres (SARCAN).

Key Stakeholders: Households, SARCAN, Saskatchewan Ministry of Environment and Public Safety.

An Overview

SARCAN operates under a deposit refund scheme authorized by the Saskatchewan Litter Control Act. A refundable deposit and a handling fee are paid by the consumer to the retailer, and are passed through the distributor to the Government. When the consumer returns the container to a SARCAN centre, SARCAN refunds the deposit and claims the deposit from the government. The government also pays SARCAN all the handling fees that are collected.

Over time SARCAN has invested in its own processing equipment, and now runs and operates three multi-material processing centres in Saskatoon, Regina and Biggar. Aluminum containers are compressed into 11 kilogram bisquettes, each of which contains an average of 640 crushed cans. Bimetal cans are compressed into larger, 590 kilogram bales. Plastic is sorted by colour and baled. Glass is sorted by colour and crushed. All this work is done on site, and primarily by disabled employees.

In 1992, the Saskatchewan Minister of Environment and Public Safety raised the handling fees to $.05, $.06 and $.07 for aluminum, PET and glass containers respectively. She also raised the deposit refunds. Finally, on July 1, 1992 she added all other steel, bimetal and plastic containers to the system.

Some Further Reading

Lazare, Daniel (Fall, 1991). Recycled But Not Used, in The Amicus Journal, NRDC, New York.

Wrubleski, Phil (1993). SARCAN: An Urban-Rural Waste Management Partnership, SARC, Saskatoon.

Return to Budget Neutral Instruments list, or
Return to the Waste Management section.