By Randy Tuchtenhagen, Freeborn County Solid Waste Officer

I have been reading articles lately in my trade magazines and newspapers about recycling efforts nationally. The December issue of Refuse News had a very interesting article that I thought should be shared.

There are ten states that have implemented container deposit laws. Michigan is the only one with a 10-cent deposit on beverage containers. Michigan also has the highest beverage container recycling rate of any state-ninety five percent. The 40 states without deposit laws recycle beverage containers at an average rate of approximately thirty percent, according to the Container Recycling Institute. In Minnesota it is about forty five percent.

There has been much discussion about container deposit laws over the years. Most of it centers around the collection points, health concerns of those collection points and the fact that states with beverage deposit laws do not have significantly less litter in their ditches than those without deposit laws. The largest force

against the container deposit bills are the beverage producers, container manufacturers and grocers. They are the ones who often deal with the buy-back.

The benefits to increased recycling rates of beverage containers are energy savings from using more recycling materials and reduced air and water pollution. It costs less to make new products from recycled content than from virgin plastic.

A possible solution to bring all states into the recycling loop may come not from the state level, but Federal. Legislation has been sponsored by U.S. Sen James Jeffords (I-VT) aimed at doubling the national beverage container recycling rate.

Sen. Jeffords’ bill, the “National Beverage Container Producer Responsibility Act of 2003” would hold beverage companies responsible for developing a system to achieve an eighty percent recycling rate for their containers. A 10-cent refundable deposit would apply to an estimated one hundred eighty billion aluminum cans, plastic and glass bottles used as packaging for most kinds of

beverages. Original co-sponsors of the bill include Senators John F. Kerry, Patrick Leahy, and Joseph Lieberman. All four senators represent states with deposit laws, popularly known as “bottle bills.”

One innovation in the legislation is that industry would have the flexibility to devise the most cost-effective means to meet the goal. Recycling rates are in decline in many states and New York mayor Bloomberg has threatened to reduce or eliminate recycling as part of their budget “fix.”

Cleveland, Ohio, Mayor Jane Campbell has proposed a plan to discontinue the city’s curbside collection program to save money. Many small cities throughout the nation have cut or ended programs altogether to save money.

Many of those programs were operated by government employees and represented a large portion of their city or county budget.

In Minnesota our recycling rate has remained level for the past couple of years. We are doing all the easy things, now we have a larger challenge to find more material to recycle and cost effective collection.

The Container Recycling Institute estimates that the total energy savings achieved by a national bottle bill would be 53 million barrels of crude oil equivalent annually, or enough to meet the needs of the annual residential energy needs of more than three million American households a year. For those of us who support a return deposit on beverage containers, it’s time to let our legislators (Senators and Congressmen) know our feelings. Sen. Jeffords bill may be the solution to a successful program.

(Randy Tuchtenhagen is the Freeborn County Solid Waste Officer.)