The Container Recycling Institute and Reloop released a study showing that deposit return systems do not have a negative effect on beverage sales. | Zety Akhzar/Shutterstock
A study looking at two decades of beverage sale trends around the world found that there was no decrease in sales when deposit return systems went into effect or were expanded. Continue Reading
Deposit containers collected in Oregon at the OBRC sorting facility outside Portland. | Dan Leif/Resource Recycling
Oregon residents turned in over 2 billion beverage containers in 2022, an 88.5% preliminary redemption rate for one of the country’s most successful bottle and can redemption systems. Continue Reading
Amid lower PET bale prices, CalRecycle aims to offset costs for plastics recyclers. | Nixx Photography/Shutterstock
California regulators will double the subsidy paid to PET recycling companies, citing the lower prices that bottle bales are fetching on the market.
SB 353 aims to protect recycling companies from severe market fluctuations, which have been a factor in many closures. | Susanne Pommer/Shutterstock
A newly introduced bill in the California Senate would adjust how state regulators calculate the amount of money paid to bottle and can recycling businesses, helping those companies avoid steep financial losses when scrap values plummet.
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The latest drop-off center from the Oregon Beverage Recycling Cooperative uses AI to rapidly count and identify bottles and other containers. | Marissa Heffernan/Resource Recycling, Inc.
The busiest container redemption center in Oregon recently got an upgrade, delivering the Oregon Beverage Recycling Cooperative’s neural network technology to a consumer-facing location for the first time.
Thermoforms like those shown here often contain post-consumer material from bottles, but a California bill would require post-consumer thermoforms to be used in production of new thermoforms. | Anakumka/Shutterstock
Current debate over a California bill requiring PET thermoforms to contain RPET derived from thermoforms boils down to one question: What will materials recovery facilities do?
Amended bill text would require beverage retailers to accept containers or join a dealer cooperative. | Glenn Highcove/Shuttestock
Last-minute amendments to California bottle bill expansion legislation would remove the daily fee opt-out for retailers and instead require them to either accept containers or join a dealer cooperative to coordinate collection, along with several other changes.
Legislators from around the U.S. grappled with bottle bills this year. | Namitha Hebbar/Shutterstock
Bottle bills were popular this legislative session, with updates and expansions passed or considered in several states.
Changes to Iowa’s bottle redemption program are awaiting the Governor’s signature. | Jacob Boomsma/Shutterstock
Iowa lawmakers have approved container deposit legislation that triples the bottle handling fee but allows grocery stores and other retail entities to opt out of the collection system, a fact that could significantly reduce redemption access.
The New York State Capitol in Albany. | Real Window Creative/Shutterstock
In recent days, a proposal for extended producer responsibility was sidelined in New York, and Iowa lawmakers sat deadlocked over legislation to update the bottle bill.