Have you ever noticed the little print on the side of your can of Pepsi that says things like OR deposit 5 cents? Ever wonder what that is all about? It is called a recycling deposit. It has been around for decades in many states, and I do not know why on earth it isn’t a law in every state. Here is how it works: Every time you buy a carbonated beverage (or sometimes juices or other non-carbonated drinks) in a container you pay a small deposit. No big deal. In most areas it is a nickel per container. It is called a deposit, because when you return the container, you get it back. This whole idea goes way back. When we used to use glass bottles for everything from milk to soda, it was a simple way to make sure that the empties got back to the bottler where they could be sterilized and reused. Lucky for us, we discovered space age polymers and aluminum cans. Gone are the days of expensive steel and glass. Now we can litter our landscape with cheap aluminum beer cans and fill our landfills with plastic pop bottles. Yippee!
What does the deposit law do for the environment? Lots. People have a tendency to recycle if there is a monetary impetus. States that have a deposit law recycle more cans and bottles. It is a gimme. Hate to recycle? No worries, set your cans on the curb and people will gladly pick them up. Homeless persons in Oregon survive simply by picking up others trash. That means less garbage on the street and the side of the road. I can remember growing up in a small town in Kansas and the thrill of going to the park to look for bottles. If we found enough, we could take them in to the grocers and get enough money for a pack of gum, a handful of tootsie rolls or perhaps the Holy Grail: a balsa wood airplane powered by a rubber band! I would gladly scour the baseball diamond for Dr Pepper empties left behind or dig in the bushes for a beer can tossed away just at the prospect!
Deposit laws (sometimes called bottle bills) are common in many states. So what is the deal with Ohio? Why don’t we have them here? Retailer hate them. They say that they cannot keep up with the issues surrounding collecting the empties. With the automatic machines that are available now, this is simply not true. Besides in most states with a bottle bill, retailer have an agreement with the bottlers that they split the cost of collection. Enter the second reason. Bottlers hate them. Why wouldn’t they? Anything that impedes the free flow of their products in a disposable cheap manner is a danger to their bottom line. Who cares about the damn planet anyway? Lastly many consumers stand opposed to bottle bills. There is always an issue when you have to pay for something. We hate sales tax. We hate income tax. We hate property tax. These are all necessary evils in today’s economy and I say so is a bottle deposit. Besides, you get the money back, and if you can’t be bothered to recycle then I say you should be forced to pay the nickle a can. Suddenly when you have to pay by the bottle, you start buying in bigger packages. When you can get the nickel back, you start to think before tossing out that beer can or pop bottle. It isn’t like it is something new, the programs are all in place in other states, so it is just a matter of bringing them across the border.
I was not aware Ohio did not have a deposite law, because you can still return cans for a refund, correct? I admittedly subscribe to the system of leaving them for the homeless to return. Recycling and supporting those less fortunate (sure, it has nothing to do with being lazy). I will now try to make a conscious effort to at least separate them, so that the trash pickers only have to grab that (biodegradable) bag and move on. Thanks Robert.
Daddy wants a 8th in his Robert Stockham collection (not to mention the personal photos).
No, we do not have a bottle bill here. You are thinking of NY state! We do have an active community of scrap recyclers here, though.
I remember mom and dad getting SO mad when we didn’t bring our Pepsi bottles back from the park with us!
I live in Michigan for about 8 years and dealt with the deposits and it wasn’t nearly as bad as people that don’t deal with it think it is. (Did that just make sense?). While at times it was a sticky smelly mess, no one seemed to complain when they walked out with the money to put down on their next purchase. After moving back to Ohio I realized just how much gets thrown in the landfill just because it’s “not worth anything to them”. In Michigan you never saw cans in the trash, or along the roads, or in yards like I do here. I say if that’s what it takes to get the masses to recycle, then lets do it!
I agree. In Ohio, we seem to need a shove to get going. With a bottle bill, maybe the desperate will stop stealing the copper from abandoned homes and start picking up garbage!
Forced deposit programs are an antique solution to a modern problem. They target less than 10% of the wastestream (beverage containers), cost more than curbside programs which collect all recyclable materials, and boast an artificially high redemption rate due to rampant fraud (buying products in a non-deposit state and redeeming them in a forced deposit state). Finally, the true carbon footprint of a forced deposit program is huge–fossil fuels burned by consumers returning beverage containers, fuel burned by large trucks picking up the containers at the grocery store or redemption center to deliver to processors make the system an antiquated, expensive and inefficient system.
Thank you for your insights. You raise some very valid points. I agree that this is not the end solution, but only the first stage. If everyone were on board, the system would become more efficient. Furthermore, the buy in by producers would be bigger. This would lead to more production in aluminum (which is quick and easy to recycle) and less in plastic bottles (which are more a more difficult item to handle). In Europe, the manufacturers of automobiles must recycle every car they produce at the end of its natural life. This concept of owning what you produce has lead to innovation in the industry and increases awareness of the end of life issue. The result is cars that made differently, with a complete avoidance of the waste stream all together. So a deposit system has its own merits. It leads to less pollution (think of collecting bottles and cans instead of scrap metal). It raises awareness (these items become a commodity, not a waste item). If all states were brought on board, there would be less fraud (while there is really very little now). As for waste spent in fossil fuels to collect and recycle, there is some problem here, but not nearly the as large as doing nothing. I moved from a state with a deposit law. The deposit system works well there. Most returnables are taken at the time of the next shopping experience, so there is little extra carbon used. Local bottlers buy back the cans and bottles, and thus take them when they make their deliveries of new product. There is little or no fraud involved here, because most neighboring states have their own deposit laws. At a nickel a can, can you imagine how much you would have to drag across state lines to make it reasonably profitable to commit this type of fraud? I have returned pick up loads of cans and believe me, it is never as much as you might think…
Let me say that I agree with you on many points. I agree that this is an outdated solution, but it is a solution for now that is better than our current one of doing nothing in many regions. I agree, that I would much rather see a mandatory city wide enforced recycle program. Until we have that in every community in the state, I would say that the deposit law goes a long way to addressing the issue.