Container Recycling Institute Potomac Watershed Trash Summit Washington, DC March 16, 2006 Pat Franklin Executive Director Container Recycling Institute There’s Treasure in the Trash Container Recycling Institute 2006

Rock Creek, Montgomery County Container Recycling Institute 2006

Container Recycling Institute 2006

Container Recycling Institute 2006 Plastic Beverage Bottles as a Percent of Total Debris: Potomac Watershed Cleanup The 108,575 recyclable plastic bottles (10,000 pounds) collected during the 2004 spring cleanup accounted for 30% of all bagged trash collected. Source: Alice Ferguson Foundation, 2005 Container Recycling Institute 2006

Container Recycling Institute 2006 Beverage Containers – 28% of Marine Debris in U.S. 2004 International Coastal Cleanup United States 28% 72% Source: 2004 International Coastal Cleanup, The Ocean Conservancy Container Recycling Institute 2006

Container Recycling Institute 2006 All Beverage Containers as a Percent of Waterway Debris in Kentucky: 2000 Beverage containers, carriers, tops and pull tabs represented 50% of total waterway debris in SWaCK Study 44% Source: Litter in Kentucky, A View from the Field, Solid Waste Coordinators of Kentucky (SWaCK) 2000. Container Recycling Institute 2006

Container Recycling Institute 2006 What are our options for reducing litter? Litter taxes Recycling programs Container deposit laws Container Recycling Institute 2006

Container Recycling Institute 2006 Litter Taxes Litter taxes fund litter pickups and public relations campaigns… an approach that’s like mopping up the floor while the sink is overflowing, instead of turning the spigot off. Container Recycling Institute 2006

Container Recycling Institute 2006 After 35 years and millions of dollars in public relations campaign expenses…… Iron Eyes Cody is still crying! Beverage container debris has increased. Container Recycling Institute 2006

Container Recycling Institute 2006 Recycling Programs Despite tremendous growth in curbside recycling in the 1990’s beverage container litter and debris has actually increased. Container Recycling Institute 2006

Curbside Recycling has not Curbed Beverage Container Coastal Debris Estimate Sources: Ocean Conservancy, U.S. Bureau of the Census, BioCycle. * Note: 2000 curbside access rate is an estimate based on prior year. Curbside has tripled in past decade, yet beverage container litter rate has remained more or less the same. Clearly, the growth in curbside access has not changed the behavior patterns of litterers. Container Recycling Institute 2006

Container Recycling Institute 2006 Container Deposit Law States Oregon Vermont Michigan Maine Iowa Connecticut Massachusetts Delaware New York California Hawaii Container Recycling Institute 2006

Container Recycling Institute 2006 Beverage Containers Recycled Per Capita in the United States 191 per capita 490 per capita Units Source: Table ES-1, “Understanding Beverage Container Recycling: A Value Chain Assessment Prepared for the Multi-Stakeholder Recovery Project ,” Businesses and Environmentalists Allied for Recycling (BEAR), 2002. Container Recycling Institute 2006

Container Recycling Scorecard Total Annual Recovery (billions of units) Per Capita Recovery (units) % of Total US Annual Recovery Cents Per Unit 40 Non-deposit States (71% of US Population) 38.2 191 49% 1.25   10 Deposit States (29% of US Population) 40.0 490 51% 1.53  (a) Includes revenues from material sales; does not include the forfeited deposit value of unredeemed containers. Source: Table ES-1, “Understanding Beverage Container Recycling: A Value Chain Assessment Prepared for the Multi-Stakeholder Recovery Project ,” Businesses and Environmentalists Allied for Recycling (BEAR), 2002. Container Recycling Institute 2006

Litter Reduction After Passage of Container Deposit Legislation State and Source of Data Beverage Container Litter Reduction Total Litter Reduction New York (Temp State Commission 1985) 70-80% 30% Oregon (OR DEQ 1982) 83% 47% Vermont (US GAO 1977) 76% 35% Maine (US GAO 1980) 69-77% 34-64% Michigan (MI DOT 1979) 84% 41% Iowa (IA DOT 1980) 39% Container Recycling Institute 2006

Container Recycling Institute 2006 Beverage Containers as a Percent of Coastal Debris in States with CDL Michigan, with a 10-cent deposit, has the lowest percentage of beverage container litter of all eleven CDL states With the exception of New York, all 7 CDL states were well below the national average of 18% States where over 5,000 items were collected Source: CRI calculations based on 2004 International Coastal Cleanup data Container Recycling Institute 2006

Container Recycling Institute 2006 Refundable Deposits Work They provide a disincentive to litter. They provide an incentive to recycle and to pick up bottles and cans that are littered. They stop litter at the source. Container Recycling Institute 2006

Container Recycling Institute 2006 We can do something about beverage container litter today! Container Recycling Institute 2006

Container Recycling Institute 2006 They will thank us tomorrow! Container Recycling Institute 2006

Container Recycling Institute 1776 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Suite 800 Washington, DC 20036 TEL: 202.263.0999 • FAX: 202.263.0999 Email: CRI@container-recycling.org Visit us on the web at: www.container-recycling.org and www.bottlebill.org CRI is a nonprofit research and public education organization that studies and promotes alternatives for reducing container and packaging waste. Container Recycling Institute 2006