Edmonton, AB – Today, Alberta’s Beverage Container Management Board (BCMB) announces the release of its 2025 Annual Report, highlighting a year focused on maintaining strong system performance, modernizing regulatory approaches, and supporting a stable and resilient recycling system for Albertans.
This year’s report reflects a clear shift from identifying opportunities to strengthening the system’s performance and long-term resilience.
Read the full 2025 Annual Report
“Completing my first full year as President & CEO has been defined by purpose and intention,” said Mark Emsden. “Our focus in 2025 has been on strengthening the system’s foundation, ensuring it remains efficient for stakeholders, protects long-term system integrity, and remains cost-neutral for Albertans.”
Falkenberg emphasized the importance of stability and adaptability. “As BCMB continues to evolve, our role as regulator is to ensure the system remains consistent, accountable, and responsive to economic and demographic changes, all while supporting innovation and maintaining public trust.”
Key highlights include:
System Performance
In 2025, Albertans returned 2.2 billion of the approximately 2.7 billion containers sold, achieving an 82.5% collection rate and receiving $220 million in refunds.
Financial Stewardship
Continued focus on cost neutrality and system efficiency, ensuring the system remains financially sustainable while minimizing burden on Albertans and stakeholders. The overall net system cost declined slightly in 2025 to $0.0234 per container from $0.0304 per container in 2024.
Enhanced Accessibility
Progress on alternative collection methods, including a Request for Expressions of Interest (RFEOI) for pilot projects across seven locations, aimed at improving accessibility, reducing barriers, and enhancing convenience for Albertans.
Strengthening Partnerships
Ongoing collaboration with depot operators, industry stakeholders, municipalities, and government to ensure coordinated system improvement and strong stakeholder alignment.
The organization advanced several modernization initiatives in 2025, including reducing administrative burden for beverage registrants, enhancing stakeholder services, and strengthening manufacturer reporting accuracy, among others.
Looking ahead, BCMB remains focused on strengthening the system’s long-term performance through initiatives such as exploring alternative collection methods, supporting innovation and emerging technologies for collecting and processing containers, expanding beverage container coverage within the deposit system, advancing digitization, and improving data capabilities to support evidence-based decision-making.
About BCMB
Beverage Container Management Board (BCMB) oversees Alberta’s beverage container recycling system and is responsible for developing, implementing, and enforcing policies and by-laws that support the effective and efficient collection and recycling of beverage containers across the province.