1Container Recycling Institute 2005 Plastic Debris – Rivers to Sea Redondo Beach, California September 7-9, 2005 Stopping Plastic Beverage Bottle Debris at the Source Pat Franklin Executive Director Container Recycling Institute

2Container Recycling Institute 2005 Introducing…the one-way, throwaway can

3Container Recycling Institute 2005 FACT: There were no plastic beverage bottles in the 1930’s, 40’s, 50’s, 60’s, and very few in the 1970’s and 80’s. FACT: In 2005 Americans will drain more than 50 billion single-serving PET plastic beverage bottles... an estimated 40 billion will end up landfilled or littered..

4Container Recycling Institute 2005 Container Type Aluminum cans Glass bottles PET Plastic Bottles TOTAL Sources: Aluminum Association,Glass Packaging Institute, US EPA, US Department of Commerce, American Plastics Council, Beverage Marketing Corporation. Beverage Container Sales: (in billions)

5Container Recycling Institute 2005 PET Carbonated Soft Drink Bottle Sales: Source: American Plastics Council Billions of Units

6Container Recycling Institute 2005

7 A moment of refreshment... an eternity of waste!

8Container Recycling Institute 2005 Hawai’i 2002

9Container Recycling Institute 2005 A stream in Maryland 2005

10Container Recycling Institute 2005 Beverage Container Debris Picked up during 2004 International Coastal Cleanup Source: 2004 International Coastal Cleanup, The Ocean Conservancy # of Items

11Container Recycling Institute 2005 Beverage Containers as Percent of Total Debris Collected: 2004 International Coastal Cleanup 72% 28% Source: 2004 International Coastal Cleanup, The Ocean Conservancy

12Container Recycling Institute 2005 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. 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

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

14Container Recycling Institute 2005  Litter taxes How can we reduce beverage container debris in waterways?  Recycling programs  Container deposit laws

15Container Recycling Institute 2005 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. Litter Taxes

16Container Recycling Institute 2005 After 35 years and millions of dollars in public relations campaign expenses…… Iron Eyes Cody is still crying!

17Container Recycling Institute 2005 Recycling Programs Bin there…done that! Despite tremendous growth of curbside recycling in the 1990’s beverage container debris has actually increased.

18Container Recycling Institute 2005 Curbside Recycling has not Curbed Beverage Container Coastal Debris Sources: Ocean Conservancy, U.S. Bureau of the Census, BioCycle. * Note: 2000 curbside access rate is an estimate based on prior year. Estimate

19Container Recycling Institute 2005 Container Deposit Laws Oregon Vermont Michigan Maine Iowa Connecticut Massachusetts Delaware New York California Hawaii

20Container Recycling Institute 2005 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) 76%39%

21Container Recycling Institute 2005 Beverage Containers as a Percent of Coastal Debris in States with no CDL Source: CRI calculations based on 2004 International Coastal Cleanup data %: national average 11%: average in CDL states

22Container Recycling Institute 2005 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% Source: CRI calculations based on 2004 International Coastal Cleanup data

23Container Recycling Institute 2005 Beverage Bottle & Can Debris Collected during International Coastal Cleanup in U.S. (1996, 1998, 2000 & 2004) Source: CRI calculations based on date from the International Coastal Cleanup Note: 2004 data for states that collected more than 5,000 total items CA, CT, FL, GA, HI,IL, IN, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN,MO, NE, NJ, NY, NC, OH, OR, PA, RI, SC, TX, VA, WA, WI, Guam, PR,VI,

24Container Recycling Institute 2005 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.

25Container Recycling Institute 2005 We can do something about beverage container debris today!

26Container Recycling Institute 2005 They will thank us tomorrow!

27Container Recycling Institute 2005 Visit us on the web at: and Container Recycling Institute 1601 N. Kent Street, Suite 803, Arlington, VA TEL: FAX: CRI is a nonprofit research and public education organization that studies and promotes alternatives for reducing container and packaging waste.