Frequently asked questions

Go Consigne offers a service for collecting refundable containers directly from consumers, whether they are residential, commercial, industrial, or institutional. Consumers accumulate their refundable containers, such as cans, plastic bottles, soft drink bottles, or beer bottles, and Go Consigne takes care of the home pickup with optimized routes.

No subscription fee is required for the Go Consigne service. The only fees will be for the personalized collection management of refundable containers at home, which represent 38% of the accumulated amount in refundable containers, plus the following recovery fees:

• $10 and less = $5 fee
• Between $10 and $20 = $3 fee
• Between $20 and $30 = $2 fee
• Between $30 and $40 = $1 fee
• $40 and more = no fee

Additionally, members of the Go Consigne Plus account pay no recovery fees.

The most popular formats are targeted in order to include the most majority of beverage containers consumed in Quebec, including those that are largely consumed away from home.

Other plastic containers such as bottles of shampoo, dishwashing liquid or detergent for example will continue to be recovered by the selective collection.

Over 1.1 billion water bottles are sold and consumed annually in Quebec, primarily outside of homes. Unfortunately, around 700 million of these bottles end up discarded or littered without being recycled. The deposit system is a highly effective way to achieve a high recovery and recycling rate for containers, regardless of whether they are consumed at home or elsewhere.

The purpose of expanding the deposit system is to improve the collection and recycling of beverage containers. The modernization of the deposit system aims to provide an effective incentive that would allow for the recovery of a greater number of refundable containers. For this reason, on November 1st, 2023, Phase 1 of the deposit system came into effect, increasing the deposit on all aluminum containers from $0.05 to $0.10

Glass food containers will continue to be collected through curbside recycling (blue bin). Adding a deposit on all glass containers would significantly complicate their management, particularly because it would involve various food industries beyond beverages. Additionally, 28% of the glass collected via curbside recycling is already being processed. Thus, these facilities will continue to handle the glass that remains in the blue bin.

The modernization project for the deposit system targets, with Phase 1, 'ready-to-drink' aluminum beverage containers ranging from 100 ml to 2 L. This means that your juice can, iced tea, sparkling water, beer, or soda will be subject to a deposit. In March 2025, with the implementation of Phase 2, the deposit system will expand to include all the following containers: plastic bottles from 100 ml to 2 L. In 2027, glass and multi-layer packaging will be included. The products targeted by the system are defined as: Any liquid intended for human consumption that is sold in a sealed container and is ready to drink at the time of purchase, except for concentrates, broths, soups, cream, infant formula, syrups, or drinkable yogurt and any similar product containing more than 50% milk permeate.

November 1, 2023  Start of Phase 1 of the modernization of the deposit system. The refund value for cans increases from $0.05 to $0.10 per container. The deposit now applies to all aluminum containers from 100 ml to 2 liters, including ready-to-drink beverages such as fruit juices, sparkling water, cocktails, and vegetable juices.
March 1, 2025 : Launch of Phase 2, marking the expansion of the deposit system to all “ready-to-drink” plastic containers ranging in size from 100 ml to 2 liters.
March 1, 2027 : Implementation of Phase 3, which introduces the deposit on wine and spirits bottles, as well as multilayer containers such as milk and juice cartons.

Good question! For now, Go Consigne cannot refund the containers targeted by Phase 3 of the modernization (wine bottles, spirits, and multilayer containers), as the deposit will only apply to these products starting March 1, 2027.
It is not recommended to accumulate them in advance, as no deposit is currently paid by consumers when purchasing these products. This means there is no amount to refund at the moment, and there is no guarantee that containers stored now will be accepted in 2027.

No. The following containers are excluded:

• Bags, all flexible plastic ‘’pouch’’ type containers (milk bags, self-supporting bags)
• Wine type (multilayers containers)
• Unsealed containers used to serve drinks added at the point of sale, such as coffee or soft drink glasses.

Go on our Territory page to see the territory covered!

In order to be eligible for a collection, you must first register with Go Consigne. Subsequently, to schedule a home collection, you must have accumulated a minimum deposit value of $10 to be eligible for a pickup. As a subscriber to Go Consigne, when the collection route is in your area, you will receive an alert asking if you have met the required minimum deposit. If so, you will receive a pickup date within the week.

If the value of your refundable containers is less than $10 during a collection, Go Consigne will apply an Eco-fee of $5, in addition to retaining 38% of the total amount as a service fee.
In this case, if the fees exceed the value of your containers, your customer account will never go negative. However, it is possible that the collection will not generate any credit – meaning the entire value of your containers will simply cover the associated fees.
To avoid this situation and maximize your return, we recommend waiting until you have at least $10 in refundable deposits accumulated before requesting a collection.

Yes, by signing up for the Go Consigne Plus plan.

You must allow a minimum of 10 business days for the processing of deposits before a refund can be issued to your Go Consigne account.