Story Archive

Pop or Soda — Either Way It’s Money in the Bank

Canada’s Yukon Territory only has about 30,000 people, so their government programs are very small. This includes the province’s recycling system, which uses independent brokers to handle their scrap metal. Alberta Reclaim and Recycling is one those brokers that purchased bales of cans from Raven Recycling, telling the owner they were bound for India. One day an immigration officer was wandering the company’s property when he noticed that employees were taking bales of crushed cans apart — instead of putting the cans into bales as normal. The resulting investigation uncovered what was been called the most lucrative returnables scam in Canadian history. The company is accused of cashing in over eight million cans for Alberta’s 10-cent-per-can refund — allegedly netting them over C$750,000 (US$567,000). “Obviously you can appreciate that at 10 cents a can, we’re dealing with a commodity that’s worth four times its scrap value,” said Jeff Linton, president of the board that manages Alberta can and bottle returns. (MS/Edmonton Journal) ...But have the company’s owners been canned?