On First Anniversary of NY's Bottle Law Expansion, Early Returns Show Strong Signs of Success
October 29th, 2010
NEWS RELEASE
For Immediate Release
For More Information Contact:
Laura Haight, NYPIRG, 518-588-5481
Susan Collins, CRI, 310-559-7451
On First Anniversary of NY's Bottle Law Expansion, Early Returns Show Strong Signs of Success
October 31st marks the one-year anniversary of the expansion of New York’s beverage container deposit law, known as the “Bottle Bill,” to include bottled water. While it is too early to measure the full benefits of the new law, state and national recycling advocates are hailing the first year as a success.
“Consumers have adjusted easily to the expanded bottle bill and it is already delivering on its promise of a cleaner and healthier environment,” said Laura Haight, senior environmental associate with the New York Public Interest Research Group. “It has also created new jobs for small businesses and generated critically needed revenue for the state.” Haight noted that:
- In its first year of implementation, the state of New York has collected over $120 million in unclaimed deposits from the expanded bottle bill, according to Taxation and Finance data, on target with the state’s budget projections of $118 million;
- A survey of supermarkets and convenience stores in February found that 93% of the stores surveyed were complying with the law’s redemption requirements, and most of the water bottles sold were properly labeled;
- The number of registered redemption centers which take back empty containers grew by 113 in 2009 and an additional 131 as of October 2010. Many of these small businesses have been able to expand and increase their employees’ wages and benefits.
Nationally, plastic recycling got a significant boost in 2009 due to the expansion of bottle laws in New York, Connecticut and Oregon to include bottled water, most of which is sold in PET plastic bottles.
According to Susan Collins, Executive Director of the Container Recycling Institute, “We are seeing excellent growth in recycling rates in the container deposit-refund programs around the country. The expansions in New York, Connecticut and Oregon added nearly four and a half billion containers to deposit programs, and have the potential to increase the nation’s overall beverage container recycling rate by two percentage points.”
Collins continued, “PET reclaimers in the U.S. are hungry for this material. They are busy building new plants in the U.S., and can staff them with new employees as long as the materials are available to them.”
BACKGROUND
In 2009, New York State updated the Returnable Beverage Container Act (popularly known as the Bottle Bill) and added water bottles to the list of beverage containers requiring a minimum 5-cent refundable deposit. Under the new law, beverage companies are now required to transfer 80% of the unredeemed deposits to the state General Fund (previously, beverage companies kept all the unclaimed deposits). In addition, the new law increased the handling fee for retailers and redeemers to 3.5 cents per container (previously, the handling fee had been set at 2 cents since 1997). The expansion went into effect on October 31st, 2009, after a 5-month delay due to a lawsuit from the bottled water industry.
A statewide survey of retailers conducted by NYPIRG in February 2010 found widespread compliance with the new law, making the transition for consumers of bottled water relatively seamless. The vast majority of retailers surveyed accepted water bottles back for redemption (93%). Most of the stores only sold properly labeled water bottles (75%) or only had one or two brands of water that were not properly labeled (20%). The only widespread compliance problem documented was the failure by most stores (74%) to post the signage required under the new law notifying consumers of their rights.
While the state of New York has not yet collected its annual survey data on beverage container sales and redemption for the period since the expansion went into effect, Collins noted that in Oregon, which added a deposit on water bottles on January 1, 2009, the quantity of rigid plastic containers collected increased 18% from 2008 to 2009. Oregon’s 2009 Material Recovery and Waste Generation Rates Report says this “likely shows the effect of including water bottles” in that state’s container deposit-refund system. Nationally, PET recycling rates increased 1% from 2008 to 2009, according to the National Association of PET Container Recovery (NAPCOR) and the Association of Postconsumer Plastic Recyclers (APR.)
For more information go to:
Environmental Groups Urge Delaware Officials to “Mend, Not End” Delaware’s Container Deposit Law
Environmental Groups Urge Delaware Officials to “Mend, Not End” Delaware’s Container Deposit Law
Delaware environmental groups joined the Container Recycling Institute (CRI) today in cautioning Delaware Governor Markell that his proposal to improve recycling rates in the First State could actually wind up hurting recycling, burdening consumers and taxpayers, and driving up costs and greenhouse gas emissions for processors and manufacturers.
In January, Markell announced a plan to do away with Delaware’s refundable 5-cent deposit on beverage containers, replacing it with a nonrefundable tax that would go toward curbside recycling.
A superior alternative for increasing recycling of Delaware’s beverage containers is to expand the deposit to include all types of beverages and all types of containers,” said CRI’s Executive Director, Susan Collins. Delaware’s current deposit law applies only to soda and beer in glass and plastic bottles—a mere 19% of all beverages sold in the state – and it is the only deposit law that does not include aluminum cans, though 50% of beverages are in cans. In contrast, California, Connecticut, Hawaii, New York Oregon and Maine all place deposits on bottled water, and some states cover iced teas, sports drinks, wine coolers, juices, wine and liquor.“Expanding our bottle deposit law along with statewide curbside recycling will be the best way to keep Delaware’s ocean, waves and beaches clean,” said Melissa Dombrowski, Chair of the Surfrider Foundation’s Delaware Chapter. Since at least half of all beverages are consumed away from home—at school, in workplaces, at sporting events -- these can not be recycled by a curbside program, and many are susceptible to littering.
No state has ever chosen to cancel one type of recycling program in order to implement another program that targets different materials. Instead, an expanded deposit program could increase beverage container recycling in the state, and if the state chooses to keep the unredeemed deposits, it could provide even more funding than the proposed tax on the 19% of beverages could ($7-9 million per year in unredeemed deposits, versus $4-6 million through the proposed tax.)
Many states use unredeemed deposits to fund curbside recycling or environmental programs. Massachusetts uses over $30 million per year in unredeemed deposits to fund environmental programs, and California’s program makes annual payments of nearly $130 million to curbside recycling. According to a 2009 report by the American Beverage Association, Delaware ranks last among 50 states in terms of curbside recycling, with 17-20% coverage statewide.
CRI Explores System-Wide Costs and Results of Various Recycling Methods Releases New Report, “Understanding Economic and Environmental Impacts of Single-Stream Collection Systems”
December 8, 2009
Press Release
CRI Explores System-Wide Costs and Results of Various Recycling Methods
Releases New Report, “Understanding Economic and Environmental Impacts of Single-Stream Collection Systems”
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Susan V. Collins
Phone: (310) 559-7451
The Container Recycling Institute has undertaken a study of the impacts of single-stream collection of residential recyclables, with a particular focus on the economic and environmental impacts of this collection method on the final material sent to end-markets for remanufacturing.
To date, the impacts on various collection methods—source-separated curbside, commingled curbside, deposit/return—on the quality of materials destined for recycling have not been formally researched and documented. In fact, rarely is “material quality” or the “end-destination” of the material considered by government decision-makers when choosing an appropriate recycling system.
CRI selected Clarissa Morawski, principal of CM Consulting, to research the issue. Ms. Morawski is a leading expert on Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), and has authored numerous reports on beverage container recovery systems. For this study, Ms. Morawski reviewed 60 previously-published studies, reports and articles in trade magazines. Ms. Morawski was interested to find that, as a result of the struggling economy and plunging market prices for recyclables, she is seeing increased market sensitivity to quality issues. “End markets are really starting to quantify their economic losses from poor quality of material, and from a qualitative perspective, they feel this problem is very serious indeed and could have an impact on any future investments of capital to increase capacity of secondary feedstock.”
The report finds that there are many negative downstream impacts of contaminated feedstock due to the mixing of materials through single-stream curbside collection. “Basically, the report confirms that you can’t unscramble an egg,” explains CRI Executive Director Susan Collins. “Once the materials are mixed together in a single-stream recycling system, there will be cross-contamination of materials and significant glass breakage. Those cross-contamination and breakage issues then result in increased costs for the secondary processors.” This report attempts to quantify those costs, but the study acknowledges that there is a need for more comprehensive data.
“Nor are costs calculated on an apples-to-apples basis, because the tons that are handled through various recycling systems are not necessarily the same as the tons recycled” Collins observed. “If you take the contaminants out of the equation, the cost per ton recycled increases. With such high contaminant levels, some of these recycling systems are merely shifting costs to the paper mills, aluminum manufacturers, glass beneficiation facilities and glass manufacturers, and plastics recyclers.”
The report is available for download on the CRI web site: www.container-recycling.org
Contacts: Clarissa Morawski, Report Author: (416) 682-8984
Susan V. Collins, CRI Executive Director: (310) 559-7451
SUSAN COLLINS TO LEAD CRI New Executive Director Brings Deep Experience in Recycling Systems
July 28, 2009
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Press Release
SUSAN COLLINS TO LEAD CRI
New Executive Director Brings Deep Experience in Recycling Systems
Susan Collins, new executive director of the Container Recycling Institute
Signaling its commitment to increase container recycling, the Container Recycling Institute (CRI) has appointed Susan V. Collins as its new executive director. Collins joins CRI after 20 years of advising municipalities on municipal solid waste and recycling programs and sustainability issues. She was a manager and director at firms such as SCS Engineers, R3 Consulting Group, and HF&H Consultants.
“This is an exciting time for the Container Recycling Institute, as we work toward finding new solutions to increase and improve beverage container recycling” said Tex Corley, chair of CRI’s board, and president and CEO of Houston-based Strategic Materials, Inc. “Susan’s leadership and background will drive container recycling solutions that will build both a more sustainable environment and a more sustainable economy. There’s never been a greater need for recycling -- now is the time to act.”
In the last year, beverage manufacturers and container suppliers alike have committed to using higher levels of recycled content in their packaging. In most cases, the recycling goals of these groups cannot be met because either the quantity or quality is not available. CRI seeks to help them by improving the systems that recover materials, and will hold companies to their recycled-content goals. CRI routinely produces research reports on various aspects of beverage container recycling, from policy and program design to optimizing collection efficiency.
“Everyone knows that recycling saves energy, keeps litter off the streets, secures a dependable supply of local materials, creates green jobs in our communities and contributes to the avoidance of the production of greenhouse gases,” said Darryl Young, former director of the California Department of Conservation and CRI board member. “Recycling is powerful because it is a multi-billion dollar industry and a grassroots movement.”
The nation’s recycling system faces some serious challenges. Currently, two out of every three beverage containers are trashed or littered, instead of recycled, and the total number of containers that aren’t being recycled – roughly 140 billion a year -- is higher today than ever before. Moreover, some processors complain that the increased use of convenient “single-stream” recycling has reduced the quality and usability of the recovered materials.
This poor performance nationally stands in marked contrast to the record in the 11 states that have container deposits. Under these systems, scrap quality is extremely high, and recovery rates average nearly 80 percent. “Expanding the benefits for all of the stakeholders (including producers, retailers, consumers and municipalities) in beverage container recycling programs is crucial to unleashing the potential of an effective recycling system,” said Collins.
Maine, California, New York, Oregon and Connecticut have all expanded their container deposits to other beverages. In Delaware this week, rather than sign a bill that would have repealed the state’s admittedly weak deposit law, Governor Jack Markell instead pledged to “mend, not end” the system. In a press release announcing his intention to veto the repeal bill, Markell promised that a new system would be based on best practices around the country and the world.
One of Susan Collins’ first acts as executive director was offering CRI’s expertise to Governor Markell as Delaware begins the process of revamping its recycling program. CRI is considered an authoritative clearinghouse for container recycling information.
“CRI’s potent national network of recycling professionals is a primary reason I joined CRI. I’m excited to conduct new research and re-frame thinking on container recycling systems,” said Collins. “I’m passionate about recycling’s role in achieving sustainability, and I’m excited to conduct new research and re-frame thinking on container recycling systems. Recycling is a significant portion of any climate change solution framework. Additionally, recycling conserves energy, creates jobs, and ensures the materials for our future, and that’s why I’ve spent most of my career working with the grassroots network, communities, government and industry to dramatically improve recycling outcomes.”
As the Southern California Practice Director of R3 Consulting Group, Collins led an extensive international research project comparing the financial, operational and policy aspects of container deposit and packaging systems in California, Germany and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and British Columbia.
Ms. Collins also served nine years on the board of directors of the California Resource Recovery Association and has promoted advanced knowledge of product stewardship through the California Product Stewardship Council. “Between her MBA, her experience with nonprofits, her advanced research skills and her background as a manufacturing engineer, Susan is uniquely qualified for her new role with CRI,” said Marge Davis, CRI treasurer and coordinator of Tennessee’s strengthening bid to become the 12th state with a container deposit law. “She will be a great fit for this respected organization.”
Founded in 1991, CRI studies and promotes policies and programs that increase container recycling while shifting the associated costs from government and taxpayers to producers and consumers. The 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization plays a vital national role in assessing the economic, social and environmental impacts of container manufacturing, collection and disposal, and ensures that this information is shared with policymakers, regulators and the general public.
This press release was reprinted by the following publications:
MSW Management as Susan Collins To Lead CRI: New Executive Director Brings Deep Experience in Recycling Systems
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