Bottle deposit programs are typically created through what are known as “bottle bills” (or, more formally, container deposit laws). These programs promote recycling by having consumers pay a small deposit on cans and bottles – typically about five or ten cents per container – and then refunding these deposits to consumers when they return the empty containers.
As we’ll further explain, not only do bottle deposits provide significant environmental benefits by increasing rates of recycling, which also reduces overall waste production, but they can also provide economic benefits to the communities in which they operate.
How Bottle Deposits Boost Recycling
Bottle bills actively create more recycling opportunities. Unfortunately, only 59 percent of US homes had access to curbside recycling in 2019, which meant that many of these households were unable to participate in container recycling at all.
However, bottle deposit programs can operate independently of municipal recycling systems, which means that those who may not have curbside recycling can still participate in returning their bottles and cans to drop-off points near them (and will get their deposits back for doing so, further incentivizing the extra effort that this requires).
In many cases, bottle drop recycling is also much more efficient than municipal recycling programs, resulting in more containers actually being recycled. For instance, in Oregon, the bottle deposit system has achieved an incredible 90 percent redemption rate – higher than any other US state. All of those containers are saved from ending up in landfills, incinerated, or creating unsightly and harmful litter on our land and in our oceans.
Environmental Benefits: Reducing Waste Through Incentives
A total of 86 billion plastic water bottles were sold in 2021. Unfortunately, only about 29 percent of them were recycled, while an estimated 71 percent of these bottles ended up in landfills.
By incentivizing recycling with a small bottle deposit fee, bottle bills are having an amazing impact on recycling rates. The data backs up this effect too: states without bottle bills have a beverage container recycling rate of about 24 percent, while states with bottle bills more than double that percentage to reach around 60 percent!
Let’s put those rates into context: if every state reached the recycling rate of states with bottle bills – the 60 percent that has been previously mentioned – about 52 million of the plastic water bottles that were sold in 2021 would have been recycled, instead of the mere 25 million that did get recycled that year.
Economic Impact on Communities
By increasing can and bottle recycling rates, one of the results of bottle deposit programs is that more recycling is taking place overall in the communities in which they are used. Thus, bottle deposit programs can increase employment in these communities by creating demand for workers to collect, process, and recycle these containers.
Collection centers and redemption facilities need staff to be present to manage returns and sort materials, as well as to handle overall logistics. Meanwhile, processing facilities employ workers to prepare recycled materials for manufacturing through cleaning, shredding, and other tasks. In addition, the recycling industry in these communities profit as it supplies these recovered materials for manufacturing.
According to the Bottle Bill Resource Guide, “bottle bills shift the costs of litter cleanup, recycling, and waste disposal from government and taxpayers to producers and consumers of beverage containers.” This generally means that those who don’t buy or use these containers aren’t required to contribute to the costs of their recycling, even via their taxes.
The above signifies that, in addition to benefiting the environment, these recycling programs also have potentially significant positive economic impacts on the communities in which they operate.
Start Bottle Drop Recycling Through CLYNK
CLYNK is a bottle redemption company that uses a unique, patented system to make returning your bottles and cans incredibly simple and rewarding. At the moment, CLYNK’s convenient recycling services are available in Maine, New York, Connecticut, and Iowa. Because CLYNK utilizes a multi-stream recycling approach that’s unlike any other in the United States, the end result is uncontaminated materials that are just about 100 percent recyclable.
To use CLYNK, participants simply place bottles and cans in CLYNK’s green recyclable bags, tag the bags with the personalized bag tags, and drop them off at their nearest CLYNK kiosk (click here to find drop-off locations near you) after scanning each bag. This drop-off process typically takes only about 30 seconds, due to the highly streamlined system that’s used by CLYNK.
Even more convenient is CLYNK’s mobile app, where you can access your account card, update your account info, check your account balance (which increases with each container that you drop off), and keep track of how many containers you’ve returned so far—allowing you to have an idea of your overall environmental impact through bottle drop recycling.
Ready to get started? Sign up online and you’ll be sent free CLYNK cards, a voucher for ten recycling bags, and bag tags. Alternatively, you can also sign up in person at a CLYNK kiosk near you.
Still have questions about container recycling with CLYNK? Visit our FAQs page for more details.