It's Time For Deposits. On Everything.

In 1953, the State of Vermont passed the nation's first bottle bill banning the sale of beer in non-refillable bottles. That same year, a group of businessmen from the bottlers and packaging industry got together and founded "Keep America Beautiful." By the seventies, their success in selling disposable containers could be seen everywhere, literally. So they pumped up the volume, hired an italian guy who looked vaguely Indian, and picked the tag line "People Start Pollution, People Can Stop It", and effectively shifted responsibility for their product from the producer to the citizen, and ultimately through the cost of collection, dumping or recycling, the taxpayer and government. Ever since then, it has somehow become ingrained in our culture that it is our job to pick up after the producers, to deal with their waste.

It doesn't have to be this way. 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?

Americans throw out 2.5 billion batteries every year, which are the source of 80% of the mercury in the waste stream; put a 25 cent deposit on every battery and you can bet they won't be in the waste stream any longer. It's not a big deal; if you don't lose your batteries then you really only pay the deposit once.

In our cities, the street cleaners spend much of their time picking up coffee cups and takeout waste. The big externality in the convenient takeout coffee is the civic expense of picking it up. So lets make it Starbucks' responsibility- put a deposit on every coffee cup that goes out the door.

Recycling on the taxpayers nickel as we do it now not the answer, it is time for producer responsibility and zero waste. Put a deposit on everything from automobiles to small appliances to hamburger clamshells to water bottles to coffee cups and see how much less garbage we have about.

Read More in TreeHugger:
Has Recycling Jumped the Shark?
a Zero Waste Society

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Comments

[sand cat]

Unfortunately, the claim that the "cheapest" solution is the soundest is what got us where we are today, and is certainly a great idea for those who want to push their expenses off on society.

[Herrington]

I remember my father chastizing me for breaking Coke bottles when I was 8. Back then, they were substantial. A Coke bottle made a resonably good hammer.

But since distribution is the main cost of product, it is easy to see that collection of empties could be comparable in expense. That matters because of one thing. As a Roger Mellon, co-founder of Cromemco, a company that actually beat Apple to the market for the first personal computer, told me as I was sitting in his office one day "The environmentally soundest solution is the cheapest one".

That may sound contradictory, but give it a minute and think long term.

The temptation to which we have succumbed with disposables is a part of a larger social problem. Essentially, the less responsible in society have found ways to transfer unwanted burdens to those willing, for whatever reason, to undertake them. What is true of our distribution and consumption system is true of our social safety net. Those that are willing keep things from getting too horrible do so just because no one else will.

[davidly]

I use to love Coke as a kid. The popping open a sixteen ounce bottle of warm Coke and pouring it over ice for that freshly cooled flavor was a treat, as it was only allowed on special occasions, like when our family watched the Saturday night t.v. line-up with Coke, chips and dip.

People consume, but I don't see why implementing better packaging and redistribution, and/or recycling methods would hurt the producers. Back then those bottles came in eight packs and I used to look forward to collecting the deposit money when my mom would let me carry two "eights" of Coke back to the supermarket.

Somewhere near the advent of New, Classic and Coke II the bottles made way for plastic two liters, and the already existing cans. Not long ago here in Germany they managed to push through a deposit system on ALL of these. There was bickering and discussion, ie. resistance to the idea, but it is working. It can work in America too.