Senator Jim Jeffords (I-VT) proposed a bill to Congress Monday, April 22, that would require the nation’s beverage companies to develop plans using a 10-cent refundable deposit on beverage containers to achieve a national standard recycling rate of 80 percent.
Jeffords’s bill has the support of environmental groups such as Container Recycling Institute (CRI), GrassRoots Recycling Network (GRRN), the Natural Resources Defense Council, Friends of the Earth and Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund.
The bill, known as the National Beverage Producer Responsibility Act of 2002, requires beverage brand-owners to develop and submit to the Environmental Protection Agency a Beverage Container Management Plan within 180 days of the law’s implementation as a condition of sale. It also calls for the establishment of:
· A measurable performance standard of 80 percent recovery of used beverage containers for recycling or reuse;
· A 10-cent minimum refundable deposit;
· Consequences for failure to submit, implement and operate the approved program or achieve the legislated performance standard; and
· Provisions for evaluation and monitoring of the industry’s performance.
Pat Franklin, executive director of Arlington, Virginia-based CRI, says, “More than 114 billion beverage containers were thrown away rather than recycled in 1999, a 50 percent increase in bottle and can waste since 1992. Marketing strategies and packaging choices made by beverage companies are key factors in this growing waste problem.”
“The beverage industry knows what works to recover containers because they invented the deposit system for refillable glass bottles, and they operate the system in the 10 U.S. states where they are required to do it. Those 10 states with deposits recycle more bottles and cans than all the other 40 states together,” Bill Sheehan, executive director of GRRN, Atlanta, says.
“What’s new about the Jeffords approach is that it will result in a system designed by beverage producers, not imposed on them. It allows industry to do what industry does best, design a cost-effective system that gets the job done. Government does what government does best – setting standards in the public interest, monitoring progress and ensuring compliance,” Sheehan says.
The 10 states with deposit laws are California, Connecticut, Delaware, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, Oregon and Vermont.
Franklin says, “Requiring a 10-cent refundable deposit would lead to a doubling of the national beverage container rate within the next several years. Michigan has a 10-cent deposit and the highest recycling rate in the nation – 95 percent or higher since its deposit law was passed.”
To view the bill and summaries, visit www.grrn.org/beverage/deposits.