• Programs
    • Bee City USA Asheville >
      • Pollinator Garden Certification
      • Native Pollinator Plants and Nurseries
      • Pollination Celebration >
        • Pollinator Photo Contest
    • Rivers & Roads >
      • Adopt-a-Street
      • Cleanup Supply Stations
      • Clean Streams Day
      • Trash Trout
      • WNC Big Sweep
    • Education
    • Urban Forestry >
      • Cool Green Asheville
      • Adopt-a-Spot
      • Food Tree Project
      • RRI
      • Tree Nursery
      • Treasured Trees >
        • Treasured Trees Calendar
    • Waste Reduction >
      • Asheville Bag Monster
      • Composting Information
      • Flip Your Lid
      • Hard 2 Recycle
      • Plastics Reduction Task Force
      • Recycling Information
      • Smash Don't Trash
  • Get Involved
    • Volunteer
    • Experiential Internships
    • Youth Environmental Leadership Program >
      • YELP Staff & Alumni
      • How to Apply
    • Make a Donation
    • Wish List
    • Sponsorship
  • Upcoming Events
  • About
    • Contact Us
    • Job Openings
    • History
    • Newsletter Archive
  • Newsletter Signup
  • Blog Roll
    • Latest News
    • Protect our Pollinators
    • Voice for the Trees
    • Mind Your Plastic May
    • Fall Leaves
ASHEVILLE GREENWORKS
  • Programs
    • Bee City USA Asheville >
      • Pollinator Garden Certification
      • Native Pollinator Plants and Nurseries
      • Pollination Celebration >
        • Pollinator Photo Contest
    • Rivers & Roads >
      • Adopt-a-Street
      • Cleanup Supply Stations
      • Clean Streams Day
      • Trash Trout
      • WNC Big Sweep
    • Education
    • Urban Forestry >
      • Cool Green Asheville
      • Adopt-a-Spot
      • Food Tree Project
      • RRI
      • Tree Nursery
      • Treasured Trees >
        • Treasured Trees Calendar
    • Waste Reduction >
      • Asheville Bag Monster
      • Composting Information
      • Flip Your Lid
      • Hard 2 Recycle
      • Plastics Reduction Task Force
      • Recycling Information
      • Smash Don't Trash
  • Get Involved
    • Volunteer
    • Experiential Internships
    • Youth Environmental Leadership Program >
      • YELP Staff & Alumni
      • How to Apply
    • Make a Donation
    • Wish List
    • Sponsorship
  • Upcoming Events
  • About
    • Contact Us
    • Job Openings
    • History
    • Newsletter Archive
  • Newsletter Signup
  • Blog Roll
    • Latest News
    • Protect our Pollinators
    • Voice for the Trees
    • Mind Your Plastic May
    • Fall Leaves
Picture
We are drowning in plastic.

From beauty products to grocery bags to water bottles to our daily cup of coffee, plastic is present in every aspect of our lives. Most of these items are designed to be used once and thrown away, usually heading to the landfill.

Some of the plastic that we think can be recycled, like drink lids, straws and utensils, end up in the landfill because they're either too difficult to recycle or there's no market for the end products. Even recyclable plastic such as water bottles are becoming harder to recycle.

The most effective approach to reducing our plastic waste is to REFUSE, REDUCE, and REUSE.

In January 2019, GreenWorks spearheaded the creation of the Plastics Reduction Task Force -- a group of motivated volunteers dedicated to reducing single-use plastic in our environment. 
​
Join the plastic-free movement and break free from the plastic ties that bind us.
Donate now for a plastic-free future
Mind Your Plastic May is meant to encourage and challenge us in our journey to live plastic free. These posts are created by GreenWorks staff, Plastic Reduction Task Force volunteers, and other plastic-free advocates in Buncombe County. If you've found these posts helpful and encouraging, please consider making a donation to support this work. If you have any questions, please email [email protected]
Picture

The Benefit of Bottle Bills

5/11/2020

3 Comments

 
Picture
By Finn Digman

Across the world, countries rely on Deposit Return Systems to incentivize recycling and save taxpayer money. 
The concept is simple:

You buy a bottle from your local grocery store, maybe it’s a cherry cola or a bottle of mineral water. The grocery store charges you 5₵ or 10₵ extra when you check out, then you go on your merry way. Once the bottle is empty, you bring it back to the store and receive a refund for that same 5₵ or 10₵. More than 40 regions employ this system, and the results are dramatic. 
​

In Michigan, more than 90% of all bottles and cans are collected and recycled after use. Similar numbers are reported in Germany, Norway, and other regions with Bottle Bills. Beverage containers are one of the most littered items in marine ecosystems, but deposits reduce litter by up to 10%. That is a huge win for local and global ecosystems! The collection, transport, sorting, and processing involved in recycling returned containers creates jobs in local economies. Bottle Bills are not just good for ecosystems and economies, people love them. Over 80% of people polled around the world strongly support having a deposit system. 

In the United States, 11 regions have passed Bottle Bills. 

I grew up in Iowa, where Bottle Bills have been in effect since 1978. We learned young that throwing away our bottles and cans was unacceptable, because it meant money down the drain. North Carolina does not currently have a Bottle Bill, but it could. Read this article and imagine what a container law would look like in our state!

The deposit redemption system benefits retailers and distributors; it also benefits states and their residents. The system works like this: a retailer buys beverages from a distributor and pays a deposit on each bottle. The distributor makes income on short-term investments using those deposits. Once the consumer returns the bottle, the retailer can recoup the deposit from the distributor. The retailer charges a handling fee, so they get a portion of the interest made of the distributor’s investments. Everyone makes money in this system. 

Sometimes, consumers throw their bottles into single-stream recycling or into the landfill waste stream. 

When consumers do not bring their bottles back, distributors in Iowa keep the deposit money. Since retailers want their deposit back, they make the return process seamless to ensure consumer participation. In Des Moines, Iowa, grocery stores use reverse vending machines where consumers pop their bottle in, and get a nickel in return. 

Some state courts have ruled “unclaimed” or “unredeemed” deposits are “abandoned” by the public, and therefore, belong to the state. 

The funds from these programs are used to administer deposit systems (in California and Hawaii), for clean environment funds (in Michigan, New York, and Vermont), to bolster solid waste programs (in Massachusetts), or for redistribution to retailers, which evens out the cost of unreturned bottles. Every state has a different take on how these funds should be distributed. So, a state like North Carolina has a large bank of knowledge to draw on when drafting their own Bottle Bills. 
Bottle Bills place the burden of packaging waste on producers and consumers rather than on the taxpayers. 

They accomplish this by ensuring collection infrastructure is privately-funded, as opposed to regions like Asheville where taxes pay for collection, transportation, and processing. Container Deposit Laws offer the prospect of more autonomy for consumers and more profit for nearly every conceivable entity. 

So why is this beneficial program not implemented in every state?

Despite widespread support, some groups (i.e. the beverage production and retail industries) consistently prevent bottle bills from being passed. These private industry groups claim bottle bills pass the cost on to the consumer. But of course, the consumer recoups the cost by returning their bottle and receiving their deposit. They claim curbside recycling already does the job, and there’s no need to develop private infrastructure. But the programs are not mutually exclusive. Materials collected through deposit programs are of much higher quality that materials collected in curbside pickup programs. So, deposit programs offer a unique and complementary alternative to curbside recycling.

Some claim container deposits are a tax, but consumers receive their refund immediately, unchanged, and in-full as soon as they return the bottle! As Virginia State Senator Madison Marye once put it, “I sure wish all my taxes were refundable, like container deposits.” 

What Bottle Bill opponents do not speak of is this: unreturnable, deposit-less beverage containers are a hidden tax. Corporations make the money, and taxpayers pay for the disposal and cleanup programs. 

Bottle Bills are really cool. They decrease litter, increase recycling participation, create jobs, and are loved by the consumers who participate. 

During the time of COVID-19, most regions have suspended enforcement actions on retailers who suspend their bottle and can redemption programs. But many retailers are re-opening their redemption centers before the states require they do so. No studies have found COVID-19 that can live for longer than 72 hours on any surface. That means, for consumers in regions with Bottle Bills, leaving your bottles in the bin for a few days will minimize the risk to retail employees.

Living in North Carolina for the last six years, I miss the deposit program. As kids, we would beg our parents for a turn inserting the bottles into the reverse vending machines. We would watch the nickels spill out, collect them with tiny hands, and run inside the store to buy a special treat. I would always get soda, because I could return the bottle for more money later! 
​

Sometimes, my siblings and I would head into the woods behind our neighborhood and collect cans and bottles from the creek. We would bring those bottles home and know a reward was in store. These memories may seem contrived, but the impact Bottle Bills have on economies and ecosystems is not.


















​Finn Digman is an avid environmentalist and outdoorsman. As the Waste Reduction Education Coordinator for Asheville GreenWorks, he is committed to disseminating waste reduction information to protect and preserve our communities.

3 Comments
Joanne Lazar
5/16/2020 10:50:32 am

Is there a bottle bill currently proposed in NC legislation? It makes so much sense.

Reply
CASSANDRA CHILDS
5/16/2020 12:04:39 pm

Why didn't you mention Oregon?

Reply
Cynthia P Justice
5/19/2020 09:20:03 pm

We need it badly!

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    AuthorS

    Staff from Asheville GreenWorks, volunteers from the Plastic Reduction Task Force, as well as other guest writers who are advocates and friends.

    Archives

    May 2020
    May 2019
    April 2019

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed


​Asheville GreenWorks is a 501(c)3 non-profit environmental organization, governed by a Board of Directors. Established in 1973, GreenWorks mission is to inspire, equip and mobilize individuals and communities to take care of the places we love to live.
  • Programs
    • Bee City USA Asheville >
      • Pollinator Garden Certification
      • Native Pollinator Plants and Nurseries
      • Pollination Celebration >
        • Pollinator Photo Contest
    • Rivers & Roads >
      • Adopt-a-Street
      • Cleanup Supply Stations
      • Clean Streams Day
      • Trash Trout
      • WNC Big Sweep
    • Education
    • Urban Forestry >
      • Cool Green Asheville
      • Adopt-a-Spot
      • Food Tree Project
      • RRI
      • Tree Nursery
      • Treasured Trees >
        • Treasured Trees Calendar
    • Waste Reduction >
      • Asheville Bag Monster
      • Composting Information
      • Flip Your Lid
      • Hard 2 Recycle
      • Plastics Reduction Task Force
      • Recycling Information
      • Smash Don't Trash
  • Get Involved
    • Volunteer
    • Experiential Internships
    • Youth Environmental Leadership Program >
      • YELP Staff & Alumni
      • How to Apply
    • Make a Donation
    • Wish List
    • Sponsorship
  • Upcoming Events
  • About
    • Contact Us
    • Job Openings
    • History
    • Newsletter Archive
  • Newsletter Signup
  • Blog Roll
    • Latest News
    • Protect our Pollinators
    • Voice for the Trees
    • Mind Your Plastic May
    • Fall Leaves