Sen. Jeffords Introduces Bottle Bill Legislation

Danielle Jackson

Washington, D.C. – Sen. Jim Jeffords, I-Vt., introduced legislation on Monday that would hold the beverage industry responsible for increasing bottle and can recycling throughout the country.

Specifically, the beverage container manufacturing industry would have to develop plans using a 10-cent refundable deposit on beverage containers to achieve an 80 percent national recycling rate. Plans would be submitted to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for approval.

Jeffords’ legislation is supported by environmentalists such as the Container Recycling Institute (CRI), Arlington, Va., and the GrassRoots Recycling Network (GRRN), Athens, Ga., which cited a new study conducted by Atlanta-based Businesses and Environmentalists Allied for Recycling (BEAR) concluding that deposit systems result in the highest level of recycling.

According to the study, 422 bottles and cans are recycled per capita in deposit states — Vermont, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Iowa, Massachusetts, Maine, New York, Michigan and Oregon — compared with 127 containers per capita recycled through curbside recycling in non-deposit states.