Currently, ten states have some form of bottle bill on their books that require deposits on certain aluminum and glass beverage containers that can be returned later for a refund. In addition to my home state of California, the other states that have bottle redemption laws on the books are: Connecticut, Hawaii, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, Oregon, and Vermont.
I’ve already explained why I hate bottle redemption fees. Here are ten of the biggest reasons:
- When it comes right down to it, they do little to help the environment. That’s because bottles are a very small portion of the so-called waste stream.
- Depending on where you live, deposits are not fully reimbursed. In California, for example, distribution center reimbursements are determined via weight — and that total is usually far less than the actual deposits.
- The bottle redemption fee model is inefficient. It’s more expensive than other recycling solutions, like the now-ubiquitous and highly-successful curbside pick-up programs.
- Bottle redemption fees are inconvenient to redeem. In order to get my money back, I’m forced to store my empties until I’ve accumulated enough to hopefully make the drive to a recycling center worthwhile, which is why:
- I never get a single penny of the fees refunded to me. That’s because, when it comes right down to it, the hassle I must endure to redeem the deposits isn’t worth it. Ironically, it’s also environmentally counterproductive because:
- Those who do end up reclaiming their deposits are creating new environmental burdens. Driving to those redemption centers increases fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. That’s especially infuriating when you consider:
- Curbside recycling programs have been shown to be more effective. Delaware finally repealed its law in 2009 after recognizing that three neighboring states had higher recycling rates despite the lack of bottle redemption fees.
- Bottle redemption fees are thinly disguised efforts to keep state coffers filled. In fact, they act as a regressive tax on consumers.
- Bottle redemption fees are thinly disguised efforts to keep state coffers filled (Part II). If not, why did California lawmakers decide to make the fees subject to sales tax? Add it all up and the only logical conclusion is:
- Bottle redemption fees have clearly outlived their usefulness. Which is why it’s time for them to go out with the rest of the trash.
Hey, I’m not sayin’. I’m just sayin’.
Photo Credit: Wablair
I believe it works well in michigan. We pay 10 cents a bottle when we buy a bottle of pop and get back 10 cents each when we bring them back. We generally take them to a grocery store where we would be going anyway so no waste of gas. I wish they did the same for water bottles. I do recycle those. My area has 3 recycling centers-I usually plan my errands so that I am not going out of my way to recycle.
Michigan’s bottle recylcing program is the worst. Stores will not take any bottles they do not sell, so if you shop at a local grocery and Costco for example, you need to store your bottles separately and return them to the right store. Plus, if the recycling machine doesn’t recognize your bottle, you not only can’t get your deposit back, but you can’t even recycle it. You have to throw it away in the garbage bin or bring it back home and recycle it separately. On top of that, because of this sorry ass excuse for a recycling program, most municipalities don’t have anything else. If you want to recycle, you have to pay your garbage company a separate fee to take away your recycling as well. If you live in an apartment, no recycling for you. This program actively discourages recycling and is nothing but a tax, plain and simple.
This article makes me really glad that I live in Texas. I just throw bottles into the recycle with the rest of the cans and paper and I do my part for the environment willingly.
I think they had this when I was a kid in Maine. It was cool for me because I got the money but as an adult I would definitely be irritated by them… too bad they wont go away if they are being taxed.
They should leave the tax and remove the redemption and just use recycle. Use the money for waste cleanup on the shores and such. Solved every problem you mentioned!
Are you crazy!!!!! That would be common sense, Guy!
I didn’t have a problem back when it was an encouragement to return them to recycling centres, as I am in favour of recycling anything that doesn’t take more overall to create new than use used materials.
I never redeemed them, as I only ever used one bottle here or there.
But now my city has introduced curbside recycling. City-wide. They encourage people to put all their recyclables in the blue bins, and that is obviously the efficient and logical thing to do. But the ‘redemption fee’ is still there. They actually *added* a 25 cent ‘deposit’ on milk AS they were rolling out the blue bins. Now I am thoroughly unimpressed and feel like I’m getting scammed.
Now that I have a husband who sometimes drinks beer, juice, or milk, we do collect some, but still not enough to be worth the trek to a recycling centre.
So I store them in a box, and when I have a few, I put them in the alley in a clear bag, and inevitably, someone picks them up within a day. I figure I might as well pass them off to people for whom the time isn’t an issue, and the few bucks can make a difference rather than just feeling more scammed by the city.
I would do the same thing, Rachel — especially if it means the money stays in the hands of the bottle recyclers and out of the hands of the government which continues to push these crazy laws on us.
I don’t know what people do with the money afterwards, but I figure they could use it more than I could, and better to be able to just pick up my bag than to paw through the bins for them.
Do homeless people do any other sort of money-making activity in places without bottle fees?
Are ‘bottle drives’ foreign concepts?
It’s interesting.
You’ve clearly given more thought to bottle-redemption fees more than … anyone, ever.
I know. But somebody has to do it, Paula!
In college my fraternity had a curbside recycling system (USC). We’d throw bottles and cans on the front lawn and they’d magically disappear in the morning!
What will you do when the state of California implodes with it’s financial stupidity? You are welcome to move to Georgia, though you’d have to change companies.
I live in Canada where we do have bottle redemption fees. One way that it does encourage more bottle returns, is through homeless (or otherwise destitute) people collecting them from garbage dumpsters to redeem. I can see one of these dumpsters from my balcony, and I often will see someone pulling 10-20 cans and bottles out at a time. And they often have full garbage bags of them. These are bottles that would have been trashed otherwise, and are being recovered because of the deposit fee.
The redemption process in CA is inconvenient. Because we consume very little beer, soda, sports drinks, or bottled water, our own household yields so few deposit bev containers that we’d have to collect a year’s worth before it would be worthwhile making a trip to the recycling center.
I tried to get my son interested in collecting the neighbors’ bev containers so he could earn a little cash that wasn’t from me. After our latest attempt to redeem deposits I gave up – it just wasn’t worth the effort or time. The closest redemption center is only a mile away behind a supermarket, but it’s only open during limited hours (closed 1.5 hours for lunch, too) and closed 3 days a week, so the line is always very long and made up most of high volume bev container returners (restaurants/bars, heavy drinkers, & people who pick up containers from public places and curbside bins for income).
We waited in a line of people with bags and bags of containers for over two hours with our single bin just to use the automatic machine & redeem a few large bottles from local microbreweries, hard cider, or imported sparkling mineral water that the auto machine won’t recognize. It just isn’t worth two hours in the hot sun for a paltry $3.45. There’s always a line when it’s open so it doesn’t matter when we go. So I finally conceded that our waste & recycling company will get the deposits from our curbside pickup bin (though I’ve noticed that there’s a guy who rides his bike around early the morning checking bins and he takes anything that is sitting on top – more power to him).
I hear ya! To me, the biggest joke of all (in California, at least) is the fact that redemption centers reimburse us by weight, which NEVER equates to anything close to the per-can or per-bottle deposits we pay at the checkout counter. It is a total scam that allows the state to pocket the difference. The only way around it is to redeem no more than 50 bottles or cans per trip — that is the only time redemption centers, by law, have to reimburse you for each individual item, rather than by weight. Of course, that is a total joke because it’s not even close to being worth the effort or cash to do things that way.
While the bottle/can waste is a small part of the “so called waste stream” – it is a part. Just like everything else is a “part”. Reducing each “part” reduces total waste.
Here in Ontario (Canada) we have the beer store that collects the empties. If you are making a trip for a few more pops anyhow one may as well get the $2.40 back from their last case.
The trouble is, it is such a small part that it certainly doesn’t justify government intervention in the form of a dubious tax on consumers. It just doesn’t. Especially when the public is now recycling everything anyway via curbside pick-up.
Great point Len. Here in Canada this is a widely accepted 8% tax here in Canada (a 2-4 costs us say $30 if yer cheap like me) and we pay $0.10 a bottle.
Perhaps I should just put them all in the blue box and know I am contributing something to someone who needs that money, instead of our provincial government.
Interesting.
“7.Curbside recycling programs have been shown to be more effective.” Maybe at creating more litter.
Huh? You’ve got to be kidding.
I wish it was like it used to be. You paid a cent or 3 cents according to the size of the soda bottle. The store reimbursed you, and the soda company reimbursed them. They were taken to a bottling plant that washed them in the blackest most disgusting water, and refilled them.
Being only 1 or 3 cents, people would toss the empties in the ditch. We’d redeem them. A nickel could buy a candy bar or a popsicle. A dime could buy a soda. Kids helped clean up the environment, and benefited. Man, you’d get excited when you saw 5 big bottles in the ditch. haha
Currently living in Maine where it’s a nickel per bottle and I think 15 cents for wine and liquor bottles. Our town transfer station, aka dump, has a spot where you can leave your empties for a donation for the town’s VFD. We did that more or less weekly for many years until the grocery store started a program called Clink where they take your empties in a specially bought bag somehow unique to your account and credit the money to you. My wife bought on to this program and as a result our garage is once again filled with bottles awaiting return.
My understanding of recycling programs in their current state is that with the exception of corrugated cardboard and paper they are inefficient. I am an avid recycler of cardboard and paper packaging but little else as a result. Please correct me if I’m mistaken.