Happy Anniversary Bigger Better Bottle Bill!

It has been one year since New York announced  the expansion of it’s beverage container deposit law, known locally as the “Bigger Better Bottle Bill”.

How well has it worked?

The bill which extended a refundable nickel deposit on beverage containers to bottled water.  It required beverage companies to transfer 80 percent of the unredeemed deposits to the state’s general fund instead of keeping the unclaimed deposits. It also raised the handling fee for retailers and redeemers from 2 cents to 3.5 cents.

According to an analysis of its implementation by the New York Public Interest Group, the state has collected over $120 million in unclaimed deposits, pretty close to its initial estimate of $118 million. It has also found that 93 percent of stores are complying with the law’s redemption requirements, and the number of registered redemption centers grew by 244.

“We are seeing excellent growth in recycling rates in the container deposit-refund programs around the country,” said Susan Collins, executive director of the Container Recycling Institute, in a prepared statement. “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.”

Overall, this seems like a painless way to improve recycling efforts and hopefully lead more people to make the switch from one-time use water bottles to reusable water bottles and sports bottles.  Education is the key to changing behaviors, and any effort, whether it be statewide or nationally, will help to reduce landfill waste.

Here’s to a greener tomorrow, today.

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Robert Piller, experienced in green marketing campaigns and recycled promotional products. His web site includes a comprehensive advertising specialty search, featuring over 250,000 eco promotional items in all price ranges, for any business or organization interested in going green. The site’s handy search tool helps you easily find recyclable, biodegradable, organic or recycled imprinted promotional items in your price range and time frame. View the Go Green website at EcoMarketingSolutions.com and comment on his blog postings at GreenSpotBlog.com.