SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - The price of milk and milk substitutes is going up today as the territorial government adds more to the list of beverage containers it would like to see kept out of NWT landfills.

Employee Calvin Way restocks the milk at Inuvik's Northern Store, where two litres retail for $6.39. Starting Feb. 15, milk cartons are recyclable in the territory and the GNWT will be charging a 35-cent deposit. - Katie May/NNSL photo Beverage container recycling depots by community Beaufort Delta Aklavik - Billy Archie Contracting Fort McPherson - Tetlit Gwich'in Recycling Depot Inuvik - Wrangling River Supply Paulatuk - Satellite depot - contact ENR for information Sachs Harbour - Satellite depot - contact ENR for information Tsiigehtchic - M&J Services Tuktoyaktuk - Tuk Community Corporation Ulukhaktok - Rose Marie Kuptana Deh Cho Fort Liard - Fort Liard Fuel Centre Fort Simpson - Rowe's Recycling Jean Marie River - Satellite depot - contact ENR for information Nahanni Butte - Nahanni Butte Store Trout Lake - Sambaa K'e Development Corporation Wrigley - Pehdzeh Ki Contractors Ltd. Sahtu Colville Lake - Colville Lake School Deline - Ethseo Ayha School Fort Good Hope - Chief T'Selehye School Norman Wells - MATCO Tulita - Tulita Dene Band North Slave Behchoko - FC Services Gameti - Mabel Gon Wekweeti - Tlicho Community Government Whati - Alex's Confectionery Yellowknife - The Bottle Shop South Slave Enterprise - Armella Mercredi Fort Providence - Deh Gah Secondary School Fort Resolution - Frank Lafferty Fort Smith - RTL Recycling Hay River, Kakisa - Tri R Recycling Lutsel K'e - Lutsel K'e Dene School

Starting today, the price of a two-litre or four-litre container of milk will cost an extra 35 cents - 25 cents of which residents can recover through a refund from beverage container depots.

Milk, soy milk, rice milk, yogurt drink, creamers, and evaporated milk containers of one litre or less will cost an extra 20 cents - 10 cents of which can be refunded.

Many remote communities in the territory, including Tuktoyaktuk, are now expanding their recycling facilities to accept cardboard milk cartons and plastic one and two-litre jugs.

John Stuart Jr. helps run the recycling depot next to Tuk's youth centre. He said as a positive step forward, the depot will take milk cartons starting the next recycling day.

"It'll make it a little cleaner. When they (started collecting) the cans and bottles, you didn't find any on the roads - even the dump was getting cleaned out for all the recycling money," Stuart said.

But recycling facilities in other communities are not as effective and in some cases simply do not exist. In Paulatuk, Mayor Ray Ruben said the existing recycling depot hasn't been functioning properly for the past couple of months.

"Already we're having a problem with the pop cans and bottle collection, and to add on, all we're going to end up doing is the consumer is going to be paying more for something they can't get back, what they're supposed to get back," he said.

"The facilities are not there to get your deposit back. I don't think people will like it so much because it's expensive enough here to get a litre of milk and a lot of us go without it or use alternatives."

But in Fort McPherson, resident Bertha Francis said she always recycles and is pleased she can now also drop off her milk cartons at the depot. But she added she's not surprised the government decided to charge for the deposit without consulting residents.

"'The price is going up on this,' that's all you hear," she said. "And it's happened so many times to us I guess it's just nothing new for people."

Francis will be one of many NWT residents happy to see milk containers added to the list, said Ken Hall, manager of environmental protection for the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

Public consultation in 2008 revealed residents wanted milk containers to be the next addition to the five-year-old recycling program, he said.

Last year alone, residents recycled 30 million containers, accounting for a return rate of approximately 85 per cent of all beverage containers purchased, said Hall.

"(We) asked for people's thoughts on where we should expand the program next," Hall said, adding NWT residents purchase about 1.5 million containers of milk annually.

"It included a bunch of materials and we had a pretty positive response."

A pilot project launched this summer in Behchoko allowed residents to return milk containers for a refund ranging from 10 cents for one-litre containers to 25 cents for two and four-litre containers. Hall said the government wanted to see how well people adjusted to washing their milk containers, which he said must be done before the containers can be returned for a deposit.

"Over time, people soon realized I can get my refund quickly if I bring properly prepared containers to the depot," said Hall, adding amending regulations to include dairy containers was a big deal due to the increased challenge in storing and handling milk containers.

"These things are a little different than pop and juice cans and we want to remind people it's very important to wash out the containers before they bring them to the depot. We want them to wash and squash them, the squash because of the bulk."

- with files from Katie May