A unique coalition of industry, governmental agencies and environmental organizations released a study in January 2002 that, for the first time, provides baseline statistics on the costs, benefits and effectiveness of programs to recover discarded beverage containers for recycling. Understanding Beverage Container Recycling: A Value Chain Assessment is the final report of the Multi-Stakeholder Recovery Project, Stage One. Businesses and Environmentalists Allied for Recycling (BEAR), a project of Global Green USA, launched the initiative in 2001 as an effort to bring together long-standing opponents in the battle over different approaches to recycling in a fact-based approach to public policy making.

Project participants included The Coca-Cola Company, Waste Management, Inc., Beaulieu of America, Tomra North America, Southeastern Container, the GrassRoots Recycling Network and the Container Recycling Institute. The report was prepared by a research consulting team comprising R.W. Beck, Inc., Franklin Associates, Ltd., the Tellus Institute and Sound Resource Management Group. Research was coordinated by the project manager, Boisson & Associates.

The report is a snapshot of U.S. programs as they operated in 1999. The report contrasts the effectiveness of different programs in detail, and verifies that deposit systems recover the highest percentage of discarded containers, followed by municipal curbside programs and residential drop-off programs. The report does not attempt to address important implementation questions regarding new or expanded recycling systems. The report also shows the environmental advantages of recycling containers. "We documented several key benefits in this collaborative process, for example, beverage container recycling saved about 147 trillion BTU in 1999, that's equivalent to over 32 million barrels of oil," said Matt Petersen, President and CEO of Global Green USA.

Project participants agreed that there is a need to continue fact-based, collaborative discussions and will invite additional stakeholders to participate. Future efforts are likely to concentrate on addressing stakeholder concerns about different policies. One key issue is the need for aggressive market development initiatives to minimize potential market volatility associated with increasing recovery.

• Recycling Coalition Calls for Moratorium on PLA Bottles - ILSR Press Release, October 20, 2006

RULES:

• Model Beverage Container Deposit Systems
  A modified deposit/return system is a cost-effective means of achieving or exceeding 80 percent beverage container recovery. Such a system (which is unlike traditional deposit/return systems in that it does not require sorting by brand name or return exclusively to retail) would achieve container recovery rates four times higher than curbside collection. Further, it could operate at no expense to taxpayers, being financed instead by a combination of revenues from the sale of container materials and un-refunded deposits that have been forfeited by consumers who choose not to recycle. Three North American examples fit this model. More...
• Model Refillable Beverage Container Policies
  Refillable beverage containers are generally considered environmentally preferable to one-way containers - containers designed for a single use. Yet, for decades, their use has dwindled in the United States, to the point where refillables make up 5 to 7% of beer and soft drink containers. At the same time, American drink producers have maintained or re- introduced refillable containers in Europe and elsewhere. Many Canadian provinces promote refillables too. All beer and soft drinks produced in Prince Edward Island, for instance, are in refillable glass bottles. More...
• Ban on Non-Refillable Containers - Prince Edward Island, Canada
  The Canadian province of Prince Edward Island (pop. 136,000) banned non-refillable soft drink bottles in 1977, and soft drink cans in 1984. The island's government decided that in addition to preventing litter on the beautiful resort island and avoiding the use of plastics, the ban would preserve a local bottling business and the associated jobs. Today, the return rate on Prince Edward Island's soft drink and beer containers stands at close to 98 percent. This is the highest in North America and has not been seen elsewhere since the 1950s, when local bottlers and deposit-return systems were the norm. More...