The 'bottle bill " was reintroduced by Oregon over 40 years ago.Its intention was to reduce highway litter and promote recycling of material used to construct the beverage container.
In states that have a redemption policy recycling increases by 40% (1)
Litter on highways decrease by 70% (2) . The intention of the bill in states that have adopted redemption policies have been a huge success.
Their are many hidden benefits to having a redeemable worth on beverage containers.
Beverage redemption allows 9 new self funded full time jobs provided by the consumption of beverages within a 10,000 population area. by allowing redemption these low stress jobs can be provided to people with disabilities including veterans. These jobs are absolved by a 5 cent per container at retail. those who choose to put their containers into "trash" reception allows transfer stations to provide off setting costs to material going to land fills.
a 3-4 cent handling fee is given to redemption facilities to deal with the material, Coca cola picks up soda cans plastics these are remade into new containers. National bottling takes most glass containers, and aluminium containers to recycle to clear green and brown glass beverage containers as well as new aluminium cans for beer bottling industry. off brands such as nestle waters, polar Niagara and other bottling industries using plastic containers is transferred by Tomarah, a Norwegian firm. this is used for primary energy burning boiler capacity given a 450 per ton value based within BTU output and current oil prices.
This reuse of current production material reduces landfill waste. Tomrah corporation has developed machines. These machines scan UPC codes recognize the manufacture to charge companies selling in redemption states the nickel to 10 cent value plus a 3. -4 cent value for the independent redemption center receives to handle the material. trucks that bring beverages to stores pick up the material and bring them back to the bottling plants.
Tomrah utilizes independent trucking firms such as recyclable resources based in Machias Maine to gather the material for trailers owed by Tomrah and drivers move this material to plant headquarters in various states to be burned in precept regulated boilers for energy. Tomrah advertises for independent drivers owners through its website.
There are public safety benefits as well ,as litter as a whole is reduced alcohol containers are concentrated,
In a minimum security work projects through state correction systems, gloves are worn, sanitary conditions.
Alcohol containers can be recovered, The same beer bottle in the same place by the same person allows Police to easily discern who what vehicle. With in the context of card all policies adopted by most retail stores, license are scanned . The individual is drinking and driving, This tatic would be supported by the general public in a non partisan to secure roads and highways from needless victims of drunk driving crashes.
Further quick fix bongs ( pipes made from aluminum cans) are discarded, the residue from with these containers can be taken to a lab to determine beyond finger prints what substances are available to the user, meth crack heroin is utilized and inhaled by these pipes and are discarded on highways as well. Cut the can take a sample.
Other adaptions to the tomarah container reducers is ability to anylize a bar code to color with in the computer program a milk container can be rejected if the bar code states it is a clear container.
Thus containers used to make Chrystal Meth can be anylized as the company has a video feed from the machine to the company to see what happened to a machine that needs repair, this same system can scan a container and discern the manufacture if the container was used for Meth Manufacturing.
In conclusion a National Bottle Bill will reduce litter, allow for public safety and give charitable organizations a recourse in bottle drives, off set the costs of highway cleanup state correction programs and generate low stress cost neutral for states participation in redeeming beverage containers.
1 massachussetes study of redemption policies,
2 new york studies in expansion of bottle containers to include water containers.