As we’ve mentioned before, FIJI Water is advocating for expansion of container deposit laws. The evidence shows that they boost recycling rates. But some bottle bills work better than others, and as with most things in life there’s always room for improvement no matter how good you are.So we’dlove to hear your thoughts on what would make a good container deposit law – or for that matter, what makes a bad one.

Here are some facts about what container deposit lawsdo well:

• The 11 states in the U.S. that have such laws account for 60% of recycling activityin the nation. Michigan, with a 10-cent deposit, has recycling rates close to 100%.
• The deposit amounts are sufficient to motivate people to recycle, but not so high as to make prices prohibitive.
• Customers who purchase recycled plastics, such as carpet manufacturers, have found that bottle bill states provide better quality material. With deposit laws, people sort plastics more carefully so there’s less contamination from non-recyclables or between different types of plastic.

But there are also some issues with current bottle bills. To name a few:

• We think an incentive program should cover all recyclable materials. The point is to improve recycling rates and reduce what goes to landfill, right? But the materials currently subject to container deposit laws form an odd hodgepodge. Several bills cover soft drinks but not bottled water. Many bills don’t cover non-beverage containers, such as shampoo bottles or food jars. The California bill covers water bottles and beer cans, but not wine bottles or “100% fruit juice in containers 46 ounces or more.” (You’d think it would be easy to subject wine bottles to a deposit – wine is pricey enough that another 5-10¢ won’t make a difference, even if you’re buying Two-Buck Chuck. And a big juice bottle has more plastic or glass than a small juice bottle, so isn’t it even more important to recycle? But I digress…)
• Who should keep the unclaimed deposits? Distributors often pay much of the cost of managing a container return system, so they may want to lay claim to these funds to help make up the costs. But some states argue that unclaimed deposits represent “abandoned property” and therefore belong to the state.
• What type of container returninfrastructure is best?Some states collect containers via retailers, others through redemption centers. While retailers are convenient for consumers,redemption centers keep retail stores from becoming collection sites for used packaging.

Perhaps we can think more creatively and go beyond the traditional bottle bill structure. Should there be a heavier price on landfill-boundtrash, instead of (or along with) recycling incentives? In Switzerland, for example, recycling is free but throwing away trash is costly – at least $2/bag. As a result, they’ve achieved phenomenal recycling rates, such as 80% for plastic PET bottles.

Another possibility is a federal container deposit law, such asthe Bottle Recycling Climate Protection Act of 2007 introduced by Massachusetts Rep. Ed Markey into the U.S. House of Representatives on November 15.This would provide for a 5¢ deposit on every beverage container sold in the U.S.

It’s also important to make recycling easy. Today, only about 50% of American households have access to curbside recycling programs. Curbside recycling programs and single-stream recycling (i.e., you can put all recyclables into one bin, instead of separating paper, glass, plastic, etc.) have been shown to boost recycling rates too.

There’s a lot to consider here, so please share your thoughts on how best to improve recycling rates.

bottle bill, container deposit law, recycling

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