1. 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

2. Rock Creek, Montgomery County
Container Recycling Institute

3. Container Recycling Institute 2006

4. 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

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

6. 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

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

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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

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

13. 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

14. 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

15. 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

16. 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

17. 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

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

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

20. Container Recycling Institute
1776 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Suite 800
Washington, DC TEL: • FAX:
Visit us on the web at: and
CRI is a nonprofit research and public education organization that studies and promotes alternatives for reducing container and packaging waste.
Container Recycling Institute