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Container and Packaging
Recycling UPDATE
Summer/Fall 2001 Issue

SAN JUAN - Senator Cirilo Tirado, chairman of the Natural Resources, Environmental and Energy Affairs Committee, introduced a beverage container deposit bill, SB 529, on May 7 in the Puerto Rico Senate. All can, plastic, glass and laminated cardboard beverage containers are covered by the deposit except those containing cows' milk products. The deposit amount is five cents regardless of the size of the container.

Food and beverage industry opponents of deposit legislation typically lament the burdens that such laws place upon them. Tirado's bill substantially minimizes these burdens by relieving distributors and retailers of redemption and handling of the empty beverage containers. After collecting the deposit from the consumer, the retailer turns the deposit amount over to the Puerto Rico Treasury Department. From this point forward, distributors and retailers have no further obligation. Government certified redemption centers would redeem the containers and present the person with a "cash due" ticket that can be cashed at supermarkets and convenience stores that have installed the necessary equipment.

The nickel deposit would eventually be divided as follows: 3 cents would be returned to the consumer, 1.5 cents to the redemption centers for handling and processing, 0.2 cents would become a local government tax, 0.2 cents would go to the Solid Waste Authority and 0.1 cents would go to the distributors to cover labeling costs.

Tapped by Senator Tirado to draft the bill, Attorney German Gonzalez believes the bill will be given serious consideration. Gonzalez states that "the government is desperately looking for ways to recycle since it is already de facto public policy that Puerto Rico will not incinerate its trash!"

Hearings are anticipated in late October or early November.