On returnable bottles

30 May 2007

Got questions about the environment? Ask Umbra.

Hi Umbra,

I've been wondering lately what happened to the returnable bottles that were so common up until some point in the '70s. Why did the legislation go away? Does reusing bottles use less energy? It seems like it would, but I haven't found info on advocating for bottle reuse in any of the green action plans floating around.

Anne Speck
Lafayette, Colo.

Dearest Anne,

In days of yore, portable beverages came in glass bottles, and -- reading between the lines of the articles I read on the subject -- smallish beverage manufacturers were dispersed across this fair nation. So bottles filled with regionally made beverages were shipped out and returned, as a matter of course, to a relatively nearby manufacturing plant for reuse.

Earn by drinking.

After the Second World War, the steel and aluminum industries were ready and able to push their own beverage containers ("cans"), which were considered disposable. Cans were much cheaper for beverage makers because they didn't pay to ship them home again (I assume their lighter weight made them cheaper to ship to stores as well), and reuseable glass became a disadvantage in business competition. Then there was beverage industry consolidation and the little guys went out of business, and glass no longer had a deposit on it and also came to be considered disposable.

In the late 1960s, a few people in Vermont and Oregon began agitating for a return to returnable bottles and the bottle deposit system. Vermont's first attempt at a law failed, but Oregon succeeded. Today, 11 states have "bottle bills" mandating a bottle deposit system. Under these laws, "returnable" bottles -- bottles that are able to be returned for a refund -- are either reused or recycled. If you were seeing returnable bottles in the 1970s and now you don't, perhaps you have moved states?

Multiple other states have tried to have bottle bills, or expand current ones, or are now trying to do so. In your lovely Colorado, for instance, legislators have tried to pass a bottle bill more than once. There have been national bottle bill efforts as well. Often these efforts have met resistance from business. Deposit systems are an added hassle for beverage makers, packagers, and retailers. In a typical deposit scheme, the retailer pays the manufacturer -- let's say five cents per bottle. That price is passed on to the consumer, but when the consumer returns the bottle she gets back the five cents, and the same goes for a retailer. Often the retailer receives a handling fee upon return, as well. Glass bottles are often sterilized and refilled if they are in good condition, but everything else, of course, is recycled. If you were a store or a large corporation, would you rather deal with used containers or not?

It's easy to paint a sort of Evil Corporation picture because major beverage companies have spent quite a bit of time directly lobbying against bottle bills and also -- scandale -- starting anti-littering campaigns in order to shift the focus of the discussion from producers to consumers. Keep America Beautiful was started by bottlers and packagers in the 1950s and has focused on what citizens can do to keep America clean ever since -- it's not bottles that cause litter, it's people that cause litter.

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Now, however, according to my source inside the world of waste reduction, the big beverage people are slowly joining the movement toward more deposit legislation. I guess they weren't looking so good on the corporate responsibility front and it began to bother them. And altruism, maybe.

Bottle deposit bills are incredibly useful for litter control. Litter was the primary motivation for passing them in the 1970s, and it still is today. It's not such an issue at home, where you likely put your bottles into the recycling. But if you're not at home, getting a good deposit back might be just the added incentive you need to keep that bottle out of the grass/woods/tangleweed/trash. I grew up in a deposit state, so I can speak directly to the motivation that five cents can provide. And yes, refilling containers is better than both recycling them and throwing them away.

Nickelly,
Umbra

Yours is to wonder why, hers is to answer (or try). Please send Umbra any nagging question pertaining to the environment -- but first check out her FAQs!

The claims made in this column may not reflect the views of this magazine. Neither the magazine nor the author guarantees that any advice contained in this column is wise or safe. Please use this column at your own risk.

Umbra Fisk is Grist Research Associate II, Hardcover and Periodicals Unit, floors 2B-4B.

Comments: (10 comments)

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Returnable Empties

I've lived in two states with a deposit law - Massachusetts and Michigan. Massachusetts was like most states, it had a 5-cent deposit, while Michigan's is a 10-cent deposit. The Michigan system worked a whole lot better - you NEVER saw cans and bottles as litter in Michigan when I was there - the deposit was simply too high.

I've worked in convenience stores and had to deal with bottle and can returns. And despite the grossness of having to deal with them, it's absolutely the best system. Maybe it should be expanded to ALL cans - food, drinks, etc.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Jamie Fellrath Columbus, OH

by jfellrath at 9:38 AM on 30 May 2007

New York Times on the subject of bottle bills

The New York Times Magazine ran an article on Sunday about bottle bills and how they aren't addressing water bottles. Check it out.

by Lisa Hymas at 9:53 AM on 30 May 2007

more than bottles

lets expand it to plastic grocery bags too! And maybe even fast food wrappers....

by possum107 at 11:10 AM on 30 May 2007

Canada

Here in Ontario The Beer Store takes all empties back and returns them to the respective brewers. The very successful bottle return program has been expanded to LCBO containers recently. This kind of system is possible in part because 99% of beer and wine are purchased at government regulated or owned monopolies. Sure we pay nearly double for our brews but I've barely ever seen any bottle litter. When I visit my fiancee in Louisiana it just feels wrong recycling those perfectly good bottles. It's best to use the three Rs in order and while I just can't bring myself to reduce my beer consumption it's nice to reuse the bottles when possible. I wonder if any microbrewers in the States have instituted their own bottle return policy despite not being in a bottle-bill state?

by JPDD at 12:19 PM on 30 May 2007

Reusable Bottles - Milk

When our family dairy went organic and opened our bottling facility in 1994, we decided to use returnable, refillable glass milk bottles. At the time, one of my jobs was to figure out how to expand distribution - it was really complicated.

We discovered that the distribution and retail infrastructure had all but disappeared over the past 30 years, and that in order to succeed, we needed to recreate that infrastructure - including working with wholesale food distributors to work out hauling / safety / transportation costs; working with retailers to integrate deposit keys in their computerized cashiers; educating our customers on how to wash and return bottles, etc.

It's been an amazing experience, and very successful (depending on how the milk is distributed - eg. via a grocery store or via home delivery - bottles last anywhere between 10 - 150 times before they disappear, crack, break, etc. My brother restored ancient bottle washing equipment so that we would be extremely water efficient (using 90% less water than as originally designed in the 1960s).

Today, now that the infrastructure is back in place, more dairies and beverage companies are starting to bottle and distribute returnable glass (and/or Lexan) bottles. The cost of the milk is greater at the store, in part b/c at every step of the way (distributor, retailer), they take a larger margin to compensate for the extra handling (ie. taking the bottles back). However, there's also something very satisfying about knowing that the product's pricing is much more 'full-cost' -- that when you buy the milk, there are no hidden costs passed on down the line (eg. garbage fees, recycling fees, excess unrecyclable waste, etc).

I've worked on passing the bottle bill in california in 1985 and now, based on my experience with the creamery, I believe that one of the best options for improving beverage container recycling is to fight for something the beverage industry hates the most -- increasing the $$ deposit from measly $0.05 - $0.15 -- to levels that actually MEAN something.

It's a cradle-to-cradle approach that pairs increased consumer incentives with mandatory responsibility by manufacturers.

/ Michael Straus, former VP Marketing, Straus Family Creamery (www.StrausFamilyCreamery.com); now: Straus Communications (www.StrausCom.com)

by MichaelStraus at 1:38 PM on 30 May 2007

Bottles and Cans and deposits oh my!!

While I agree that a larger deposit would incite more people to recycle in other areas of the country, I don't think it will help California. I recently, (and by recently mean the last 2 years)have been noticing the recycling habits of the people that live in my area. Which is a fairly high income area....despite my low income....but that is not the issue. Most people recycle their bottles and cans and glass that they buy from the store. I think where regulation is needed is in businesses. A large corporation or office generates so much trash and most have little to none in the way of recycling. I think California should do away with the deposit and enforce a mandatory recycling program for anything and everything that is recyclable. I am from Rhode ISland and we have had that in place for 10 years. Now in certain areas of southern California they do have one, they give out the blue bins and tell you what to put in them....if they can do it somewhere, they could do it anywhere and it would lead to more being recycled than just the cans with the CA .05 on it. It would also put the task on businesses to establish recycling in their offices etc. It wouldn't be costly, it's a matter of having additional receptacles and using them. I personally have taken it upon myself to recycle all the bottles and cans that are generated from the 25+ employees and customers of the retail chain I work for. All I did was write "recycle" on several of the trash cans and I take them home once a week. Aside from generating about 15 bucks for me, it takes about 10lbs of garbage out of the landfill every week. This is something that should be done everywhere.

by dayve311 at 2:44 PM on 30 May 2007
[ Parent ]

Beer growlers

You can apply the local dairys' solutions to beer, too. If you live near a micro-brewery, you can buy and reuse their growlers. Instead of buying several bottles, buy one jug and fill (and refill) it up with their locally produced beer. Fabulous solution.

by anduin at 10:28 AM on 31 May 2007

bottle bills

One of the reasons that bottle bills have not gotten much attention of late is that, while they are effective in stemming litter, they undermine recycling programs. Aluminum is the highest priced commodity in any recycling program. Bottle bills (cents back for returning cans and bottles) remove the aluminum from local recycling programs making them much less profitable. (If a program is to be sustainable, there must be some profit for those who are doing the work.)

by mjrecycler at 7:52 AM on 02 Jun 2007

bottle bill in California

The bill in California does not focus on returning containers to retailers and distributors but is more focused on recycling those containers. It is a slightly different beast. They didn't want to implement the infrastructure to reuse but to recycle. Personally, I try to recycle everything. My bin is green but I still fill it every week.

Locally, the city of Lancaster just implemented a mandatory business recycling program. They used to charge business a monthly fee to participate in recycling and the participation was low. Imagine that. Now it is free and mandatory so we will see how it goes.

I also have to say thanks for the link on Creamery above. My wife and I have been looking for a dairy with glass bottle recycling and is more local to our location. A local store is listed as selling your products so we will check it out.

by wayneluke at 1:57 PM on 11 Jul 2007

Bottles, Cans which cost more to recycle?

I would like to know which costs more to recycle, Cans or Bottles? I cannot find any specific information on the web. Your comments would be appreciated and I would like specific references if possible. Thanks Billy.

by billyN at 11:42 AM on 04 Jan 2008

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