The Nova Scotia government says it will consider a proposal from the Halifax Regional Municipality to do away with a refund for beverage containers in the province.

The city is proposing curbside pickup only for bottles and cans instead of people cashing them in at Enviro-Depots.

The city estimates the rising costs of running the Resource Recovery Fund Board, the body that helped set up Enviro-Depots around the province, could mean a loss of $1 million a year for the HRM.

The province said it is looking at a number of options to bring down the RRFB's escalating costs.

The provincial authority that oversees recycling is proposing people pay an extra 10 cents for each glass bottle they buy, but they'd still get five cents back when they took the empty bottle to a depot.

But city staff is proposing patrons pay a five-cent tax on beverage containers like they do now, but there would no longer be a return.

Instead people would put them at the end of their driveways along with the rest of their recycling destined for the city's sorting station.

Lori Errington, a spokesperson with the Department of Environment, said HRM is raising a good option but she said the government also has to look at its potential impact.

"Right now people are encouraged to go around, for example, on the roadside if they see refundable bottles, there is an encouraging factor that they can get some money back for those so they're cleaned up," she said. "We have to look at what's the factor if the refund is taken off? Will those be collected or will they remain as litter? Will litter rates go up?"

If the province decides to make the changes to the recycling program, the deposit for regular beer bottles would remain.

As part of its review, the Nova Scotia government said it's looking at other provinces that have dropped their refunds on containers to see what impact it had on issues such as recylcing rates and littering, not to mention the impact on Enviro-Depots that rely heavily on bottle and can returns.