Nearly all of us, if not all, use a bottle almost each day for some type of refreshment/nourishment. Be it a water bottle, soft drink bottle, energy liquid, beer bottle, or for the very little ones, a baby bottle. Thus, this Resource Recycling newsletter article caught our eye.
The article started out, “A new report estimates that a nationwide bottle deposit program would reduce the number of drink containers each American wastes to 67 per year, down from 426 under the status quo.”
And another different report showed states with bottle bills have roughly half as much plastic and glass bottle litter per person as do the states without deposit programs.
Fortunately, these studies have come about as some of the larger beverage brands, which have many times opposed bottle bills, are now becoming more receptive to deposit programs... depending on how the bottle bill is worded. (Currently, 10 states plus the territory of Guam, have bottle bills.)
A nonprofit group, which supports bottle bills, has estimated in a report, “... that over 74 billion PET bottles (probably mostly for water), 50 billion aluminum cans and 15 billion glass bottles were landfilled, burned or littered in the U.S. in 2019.” Using these numbers, quick calculations show this is about 426 containers per person per year. That’s more than one each day.
A spokesperson for that nonprofit group believes a nationwide bottle bill, “... used already in 10 states and common in Europe, would reduce wasted cans and bottles here by 84%, and it is an option Congress should now be taking very seriously.” (Such a national bottle bill was introduced into Congress this past March. Unfortunately, I don’t know what the status of it is now.)
This bill, if passed, would expect to have a redemption rate of around 90%. This would be similar to the rates in both Oregon and Michigan— which have bottle bills and would cut U.S. drink container waste down to 22 billion containers per year, or about 67 per person.
Interestingly, a study by Keep America Beautiful (KAB), a national nonprofit group, had an estimate that states without container deposits have about twice as much beverage container litter as bottle-bill states. This meant bottle-bill states had about four littered deposit containers per person as compared with eight in the non-deposit states.
While there is legislation introduced and being studied at both the national level and in a number of states, it is important that all of us try to do our part. Thus, where convenient, safe and healthy, recycle as many of the one-use bottles (both plastic and glass) which we probably all take advantage of almost every day.
(I know I’m preaching to the choir, so to speak, as most of you who are reading this already do what you can to recycle everything there is a way to do so: bottles, cans, cardboard, paper, iron and steel, used oil, tires, printer cartridges, electronics, etc.
Till next week, do have a safe, happy, and healthy one.
Ollie (and wife Mary) are local citizens concerned with the environment and helping others. He is retired Air Force fighter and instructor pilot plus a graduate of Leadership San Marcos. He received his degrees at Texas State University where he worked on staff before totally retiring. Mary was a nurse, beautician, and hospice worker before retiring to keep Ollie in line. For questions or comments, he invites you to call him at (512) 753-9525 (but not too early; he’s retired!) or e-mail [email protected]
