The Benefit of Bottle Bills

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. 
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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! 
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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.

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