Library
Beverage Containers and Product Stewardship Documents
This page contains both documents and links to web sites describing various aspects of beverage containers and product stewardship. Use the links below to jump to the portion of the library you would like to visit.
What Is the Bottle Bill?
What Are the Industry Postions on Beverage Container Deposits?
What Is the Bottle Bill?
A bottle bill is a law that requires a certain refundable deposit on beverage containers in order to insure a high rate of recycling or reuse. In the past, the deposit-refund system was created by the beverage industry as a means of guaranteeing the return of their glass bottles to be washed, refilled and resold.
The Container Recycling Institute
The CRI is a nonprofit organization that studies and promotes policies and practices that transfer the social and environmental costs pertaining manufacturing, recycling, and disposal of containers and packaging waste from government to producers and consumers. CRI plays a very important role in educating public along with government officials regarding the social and environmental impacts of the production and disposal of beverage containers and the need for producers to take responsibility for their wasteful packaging.
For more information on beverage container deposits, please review the following documents:
What Are the Industry Positions on Beverage Container Deposits?
The American Beverage Association
The ABA, the trade association for America's non-alcoholic refreshment beverage industry, proposes that bottle bills are not very effective and are costly for consumers, retailers and bottlers, where as comprehensive recycling programs are convenient and efficient way to capture waste. Also, creating and maintaining an infrastructure for handling a returned container is expensive. According to ABA, comprehensive recycling is popular with citizens and businesses and is a better way to treat environmental issues with beverage containers.
The Association of Postconsumer Plastic Recyclers
The APR is the national trade association that represents companies who acquire, reprocess and sell the output of more than 90 percent of the post-consumer plastic processing capacity in North America. APR neither supports nor opposes the desision of any state in regards to deposit legislation. However, APR believes that it is normal for legislative decision-makers to listen to the segment of industry that will ultimately receive and process the plastic recyclables generated by the consequences of legislation. For more information on APR postion click here.
The Glass Packaging Institute
The GPI serves the glass container industry through legislative, public relations, promotional and technical activities. GPI opposes the forced deposit system because GPI believes that bottle bill impacts a relatively small percentage of the waste stream. Also, forced deposit systems result in higher beverage prices because of the increased costs to manufacturers, distributors and retailers for labeling, handling, storage, accounting, reporting, transporting and other costs.
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