A bill has been proposed in the U.S. House of Representatives that would create a five cents deposit on all beverage containers, including plastic bottles, to encourage recycling nationwide.
Representative Edward Markey (D-Mass.) introduced the Bottle Recycling Climate Protection Act on November 15 to coincides with America Recycles Day. According to Markey’s office, in 2006, more than half of the 200 billion beverage containers that could have been recycled in the United States were incinerated or littered.((
Currently, 11 states have deposit programs that encourage consumers to return containers to claim the refund on the deposit. Statistics show that recycling rates in these states are twice that of states without deposit laws.
The new National Bottle Bill exempts states that have high recycling rates or existing state legislation from the national standard for 3 years, or as long as they maintain high recycling rates.((
The inclusion of plastic bottles in a national bottle bill could lead to significant savings in energy and oil consumption. According to Markey’s office, one ton of recycled plastic saves 5,774 kWh (kilowatt hours) of electricity and 685 gallons of oil.
(In addition, 58 billion aluminum cans are thrown away every year in the United States, enough to fill the Empire State Building six times. If all these cans were recycled, it would cut the emissions of heat-trapping carbon pollution by nearly 6 million tons, or the equivalent of the pollution from more than one million cars. Cans made from recycled aluminum use 95% less energy than cans manufactured with new materials.((
“Recycling is an everyday action that we can all take to cut global warming emissions and be good environmental stewards,” said Rep. Markey. “Our national goal should be to one day recycle every single bottle we use, and this bill will get us closer to that goal and that day.”
The National Bottle Bill has already gained support from leading environmental and recycling organizations, including the Container Recycling Institute, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and the Public Interest Research Group.
Loading...