Backers see chance for boost to bottle bills

Advocates for container deposit laws in U.S. states say they see increasing opportunities to pass legislation in 2024, driven by beverage companies needing much more recycled material and public concerns over plastic pollution and marine litter.

In Rhode Island, for example, a study commission created in 2023 by the state Legislature has been hosting detailed monthly talks with lawmakers, government agencies, environmental groups and businesses to try to work out differences.

"I think there's a good likelihood we can actually get something passed next year," said Jed Thorp, Rhode Island state director for Clean Water Action. "I think all of the concerns we've heard from industry folks around the table; there's solutions out there. There are ways we can address those concerns."

He and other bottle bill supporters spoke on a Dec. 7 webinar organized by the Container Recycling Institute where panelists echoed those points. They see momentum building in some states even as political hurdles still remain sizable.

CRI President Susan Collins said traditional beverage industry opposition to deposits is softening because companies see a business case for bottle bills — more recycled plastic will be needed to meet goals they've set and, equally or more importantly, they need to comply with plastic bottle recycled-content laws that have passed in four states.

Globally, CRI said bottle bills are growing, with more than 25 countries passing deposit legislation since 2016. Collins told a U.S. Senate hearing in September that by 2026, it projects that 744 million people worldwide will live in bottle bill jurisdictions, up from 286 million in 2016.

But, so far at least, the U.S. has been an outlier, without significant bottle bill expansion.

The participants on the webinar, however, said they can see the politics shifting in the United States.

"I think that the beverage producers are ready to come to the table now," said Sarah Nichols, the sustainable Maine director with the Natural Resources Council of Maine. "They're not saying, 'Don't do it.' They're saying, 'OK, we'll do it now, but we really want to be partners.' So it's just working out those details. That's really changed."

Maine is one of 10 U.S. states with a bottle bill but Nichols said she now spends less time fighting attempts to weaken or eliminate the law.

Similarly, Thorp said the meetings of the Rhode Island commission have been more focused on working out details and addressing practical concerns raised by retailers and others about how the system would operate, not debating whether bottle bills are a good goal.

"Nobody is really disputing the problems that are out there with litter, with the shortcomings in our recycling systems," Thorp said. "And nobody is really questioning that bottle bills are proven effective policies."

CRI's Senate testimony included data that in the U.S., the 10 states with bottle bills have a PET container recycling rate of 57 percent, compared with 17 percent for the 40 states without bottle bills.

Thorp said the "real crux" of the Rhode Island commission's work will come in the next few months, when the group studies higher-performing deposit systems in U.S. states like Maine, Michigan and Oregon, and those internationally like Lithuania, to figure out what could work in his state.

"The hope is that by the end of February or early March, we have a pretty good idea of what people could live with and what is the system that might work for us here in Rhode Island," Thorp said.

He said the Rhode Island Legislature has passed other plastics-related laws, including bans on bags, straws and, in 2023, expanded polystyrene food containers. To Thorp, that means lawmakers are "willing to take steps to actually meaningfully address the problem."

"That combination of concern from the public and a willingness to take action by the general assembly led us to really prioritize a bottle bill," he said, pointing to a coalition of environmental and conservation groups that are lobbying on the issue.

In testimony at a Dec. 18 meeting of the Rhode Island commission, a beverage industry official suggested companies could support the right kind of bottle bill, although they may prefer extended producer responsibility laws that cover more types of packaging than bottle bills.

Megan Daum, vice president of sustainability for the American Beverage Association, said large beverage makers in the ABA have changed their position on bottle bills — also called deposit return systems — because government policy will be needed to bring in enough material to meet voluntary recycled-content goals and comply with new state laws.

"I'm sure all of you know the [beverage] industry has historically opposed bottle bills," Daum told the commission, which is made up of about 20 state lawmakers and business and environmental groups. "I came in five years ago, when the industry did the 180.

"There's been a recognition across the industry that policy is necessary, and by policy, I mean these types of things like EPR and [deposit return system] reform and better DRS," she said, pointing to Oregon's bottle bill as a "great model" while raising concerns about other DRS state programs that divert unclaimed deposits elsewhere in state budgets.

"Our biggest members are Coke, Pepsi and Dr Pepper," Daum said. "They all have really robust recycled content, recyclability and reuse goals, and if they're going to come anywhere close to meeting their recycled content numbers, we need a lot more supply."

Daum, however, also noted some of the nuts-and-bolts opposition that bottle bills face from waste haulers, who fear that DRS programs could remove valuable materials like aluminum cans and PET bottles from curbside systems and hurt their business selling those recyclables.

But some legislators on the panel noted in their questions that none of the 40 nonbottle bill states get close to the recycling rates of bottle bills programs.

Panelists on the CRI webinar also highlighted smaller changes in bottle bills in some states.

Collins, for example, said Connecticut's deposit will increase from 5 cents to 10 cents on Jan. 1, 2024, because of a new state law.

As well, she pointed to the Senate hearing on bottle bills in Washington in September, where Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., said he saw some bipartisan interest around national DRS laws and said his office was holding "brainstorming" talks with different interest groups to try to work through concerns.

It's been common in state legislatures for DRS bills to be introduced but then stall because of their complicated politics, but participants on the CRI webinar said they see signs of a shift.

"There really has been a shift in the last few years, starting at least in rhetoric a few years ago and now in action more," said Wendy Pratt, managing director of environmental consulting firm Crowe LLP. "There's a recognition among beverage container and other packagers that the problem is big enough that it needs a big solution."