Supporters Rally Around Recycling Legislation

A host of environmental and recycling organizations have announced support for legislation sponsored by Senator James Jeffords (I–VT). The legislation, called the National Beverage Container Producer Responsibility Act of 2003 aims to double the national beverage container recycling rate. The legislation was introduced Nov. 14^th.

The bill would require beverage companies to be responsible for developing a system to reach an 80 percent recycling rate for their containers. A 10-cent refundable deposit would apply to an estimated 180 billion aluminum cans, plastic and glass bottles used as packaging for most kinds of beverages. Containers for dairy products would be excluded.

“The ten states with bottle bills are recycling more bottles and cans than the other 40 states combined. My bill would leverage the market incentives created by a refundable deposit to encourage beverage container recycling. One innovation in the legislation is that industry would have the flexibility to devise the most cost-effective means to meet the goal," said Jeffords.

Pat Franklin, executive director of the Container Recycling Institute, said: “Deposit laws are the most effective public or private recycling policy adopted in the past 30 years. The ten states that currently require refundable deposits recycle 490 containers per person per year, compared to only 190 per person in non-deposit states.”

Of the ten states that have implemented deposit laws, Michigan is the only one with a 10-cent deposit. That state also has the highest beverage container recycling rate of any state -- 95 percent. The forty states without deposit laws recycle those containers at an average rate of about 30 percent, according to the Container Recycling Institute.

States with container deposit laws include: California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, Oregon and Vermont.  Hawaii adopted a new bottle bill last year that goes into effect in 2005.