Talking Points

The Beverage Producer Responsibility Act...

• Requires the beverage industry to recover 80% of the beverage containers sold in the state. 
• Won’t use taxpayer dollars – will actually save taxpayers money. 
• Creates jobs. 
• Will reduce energy-related pollution that causes acid rain, smog, and global climate change.
• Reduces litter and the burden on landfills.

The Beverage Producer Responsibility Act won’t take a penny of taxpayers’ dollars – it will actually save taxpayer dollars.

• Throwaway beverage containers are a burden on taxpayers. When deposits are required on beverage containers, twice as many containers are recycled. Disposal, recycling, and litter pickup costs go down, saving taxpayer dollars.

The Beverage Producer Responsibility Act will create jobs.

• The recycling industry provides 1.1 million jobs.(1)
• Iowa reports that 1,200 additional jobs have been created through the adoption of their bottle bill.(2)
• Net employment gains have been documented in nearly every state that has enacted a bottle bill.(2)

The Beverage Producer Responsibility Act will save an enormous amount of energy. 

• Recycling aluminum cans saves 95 percent of the energy used to make aluminum cans from virgin ore.(3)
• For each pound of aluminum recovered, Americans save the energy resources to generate about 7.5 kilowatt-hours of electricity. That’s enough energy to meet the electric needs of a city the size of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania for six years.(3)
• Recycling just one aluminum can saves enough energy to run a television for three hours.(3)
• For every six-pack of cans recycled, the energy equivalent of one beverage can full gasoline is saved.(3)
• The energy saved from recycling one glass bottle will operate a 100-watt light bulb for over an hour.(4)

The Beverage Producer Responsibility Act will reduce energy-related air pollution.

• In 1996, recycling of solid waste in the United States greatly reduced greenhouse gas emmissions, preventing the release of 33 million tons of carbon into the air – roughly the amount emitted annually by 25 million cars.(5)
• Net carbon emissions from producing a ton of new material are 4 to 5 times
  higher than producing with recovered material in the steel, copper, glass, and paper
  industries, and 40 times higher for aluminum.(5)

The Beverage Producer Responsibility Act will reduce litter and lessen the burden on landfills. 

• Deposit states have cited beverage container litter reduction of up to 84% and total litter reduction of up to 41%.(6)
• Seven states reported a reduction of beverage container litter ranging from 70 to 83 percent after implementing a deposit / return system.(6)
• Laid end-to-end, the aluminum cans wasted in 2001 would encircle the Earth 153 times.(7)

Bottle bills enjoy strong public support.

• Public support for bottle bills ranges from 72% in Maine to 85% in Iowa, and over 70% in nationwide polls.(2)
• No state bottle bill has ever been repealed.(2)

Deposit / return systems are, by far, the nation’s most effective container recovery program.

• States with a recycling deposit for aluminum cans have an 80% recycling rate of aluminum cans compared to a 46% recycling rate in states which have no deposit.(8)
• Deposit states achieved a total recovery rate of 71.6% compared to a total recovery rate of 27.9% in non-deposit states.(9)
• Deposit states recycle 490 containers per capita per year while non-deposit states recycle 191 containers per capita per year.(9)
• In 1999, the ten deposit states, with a total population of 81.6 million, recycled more beverage containers (32.6 billion containers) through the deposit system than were recycled through curbside programs (25.4 billion containers) in the remaining 40 states with a total population of 199.9 million.(9)
• A nationwide system of 10 cent deposits on beverage containers would virtually guarantee a recycling rate of 85-90% of the beverage cans and bottles sold in the U.S.(2)

We need to do something – more and more beverage containers are being wasted.

• Twice as many aluminum cans were wasted in 2001 than in 1981.(7)
• Despite a tripling in curbside access in last decade (2,711 programs in 1990, 9,709 in 2000), the U.S. aluminum can recycling rate went from 65% in 1992 to 49% in 2001.(10)