"As You Sow" Recycling Scorecard Flunks Most Beverage Companies

The recent "As You Sow" recycling scorecard flunked many beverage companies, many of which have made some green efforts, but still produce staggering amounts of waste:

It's a common theme in As You Sow's 2008 report on beverage container recycling in the U.S.: companies are making big strides in some areas, yet they all have a lot of room for improvement.

Non-profit As You Sow last surveyed U.S. beverage companies in 2006, developing a report that spurred Nestle Waters to become the first major beverage producer to support legislation that would increase recycling rates. And just in October it became the first to support an industry-wide goal to recycle 60 percent of plastic bottles by 2018.

"Historically the beverage industry has lobbied against beverage container legislation," said Amy Galland, As You Sow's research director and the report's author.

Lloyd Alter blogged a few months ago here on the Huffington Post about bottle deposits (and other deposits), a seemingly-forgotten way for companies to keep things cleaner and greener. He also wrote about shifting responsibility for waste back to producers rather than consumers:

In Canada, 97% of beer bottles are returned to the beer stores and refilled. In France, a wine bottle gets reused about eight times. A strong deposit and return system gets ingrained in the culture as easily as putting it in the blue box. So why not put a deposit on everything?

People say they are so concerned about the mercury in compact fluorescent bulbs getting into the landfills. So put a 25 cent deposit on them and have people bring them back. People do have to replace them so what is the hassle?

::As You Sow
::As You Sow Beverage Scorecard

Comments

[LMPE]

And when did you get it into your head that corporations would be leaders in terms of environmentalism?

[blimie]

A deposit on beverage containers really works, you get the money back when you turn in your cans. We need to do so much better. Recyclincg stations need to be inside the stores. Other countries are doing so much better, America needs to catch up. At least it would create some jobs.

[Clairvaux]

Deposits are a great idea. Cola used to come in bottles with deposits. Bring it back.

[RightWingMarine]

putting a deposit requirement on the items would just be inconvient and the cost would be passed to the poor. Unless the deposit is punitive then the inconvience of collecting, returning and trying to collect the deposit is too much. If the cost is punitive then the extra cost becomes a burden on those least able to afford it.