The rules of B.C.’s bottle recycling program are clear: Return your empties and get a refund. But it appears some retailers are making up their own policies, which could be sending more used bottles to the dump.

Simon Gabriel usually collects his used bottles and gets cash back and then donates the money to charity. But recently he’s run into trouble. Several juice stores he buys from stopped giving refunds for his empties.

"So they weren't giving you money?" asked Ross McLaughlin.

"No," said Gabriel.

Buddah-Full, was one of the juice bars that didn’t give Gabriel cash back for his returned bottles. And The Juicery Co. kept changing its return program, first charging a dollar deposit and giving it back, and then switching to credits on empties for a discount on your next purchase.

Gabriel also couldn’t get The Juicebox to honour its stated two dollar refund.

The Ministry of Environment says all retailers selling ready-to-serve beverage containers must collect deposits and accept returns for a cash refund of 5 to 20 cents depending on the size of container.

That includes all types of containers, like glass bottles, plastic bottles, drink boxes and cans.

The cash incentive helps keep these empties off the streets and out of the dump.

Ross McLaughlin decided to put the retailers to the test. When he visited Buddah-Full it did not give him cash back for his bottle.

The Juicebox gave him his two dollar deposit back. The company went back to giving refunds after SPUD took over the business. But they still weren’t giving refunds on their plastic containers.

“Why was that?” McLaughlin asked Peter van Stolk, CEO of SPUD.

“I don’t know. On our side we screwed up,” replied Stolk.

Once we brought the refund issue to the attention of the owner of The Juicery Co. she immediately took action to bring her business into compliance with provincial regulations.

And as for Buddah-Full?

“We just never knew about it,” said Geremie Voight, the company’s co-owner, “We’re [now] giving the five cents back per bottle and we’re still honouring our already-in-place benefit plan.”

The Ministry of Environment takes this issue seriously. Those who are not paying a container refund face tickets of $115 per offence or fines up to $200,000 dollars.

Companies can add reward and incentives onto their recycling program as long as it’s done over and above the deposit amount. But they still must provide a cash refund.