There was a bit of controversy in Trinity Bellwoods Park after the long weekend. So the story went, hipsters left their trash behind, the Bellwoods Beer bottles were everywhere, and who gets stuck with the clean-up? This led to some trash talking on the Friends of Trinity Bellwoods Park social, with people piling on Bellwoods for not taking deposits on their bottles.
As they say, it’s a long story – it’s never simple, is it? To summarize very briefly, Bellwoods Brewery beers are not available at LCBOs, so they are not automatically accepted for returns at The Beer Store. Yes, we live in Ontario where anything to do with alcohol is still controlled by those two monopolies. Since Bellwoods is quite a small facility, they cannot start a recycling program in their space.
We ran into Mike from Bellwoods on Ossington on Tuesday evening and discussed the situation with him. His plan was to try again to convince The Beer Store to start taking returns. Maybe because they can use some good press, it seems to have worked. Read the update on Bellwoods’ website, just added this afternoon. The gist of it is they’ll be taking a 10 cent deposit, and you can return your beers at the Beer Store like all the other beers you buy.
If you’re curious about the initial complaints, and want to read the whole thread, or learn more about what the Friends of Trinity Bellwoods Park are doing, click here.
Final note, many of the bottles returned to The Beer Store are not being re-used, they are basically going to the same recycling centres as our blue bin plastics and cans. So while it’s fun to point fingers at a company for not doing things exactly the way you want them to, remember there are nuances to these stories, and let’s remember that individuals, not the brewery, left their beer in the park. So, next time you enjoy a picnic in the park, bring your trash out with you or throw it in a receptacle. Be a friend of the parks!
