Bottle Bills

But that characterization didn’t fly with Scott Callan, a professor of economics at Bentley College.

Callan, who co-authored Environmental Economics and Management: Theory, Policy and Applications, said curbside recycling and deposit programs – as long as they’re run effectively – both represent cost-effective tools for policymakers who want to increase recycling rates.

“The consumer pays the deposit and the consumer gets the deposit back at the end if they do the right thing,” Callan said. “I would have to say the impact of that so-called tax is pretty minimal.”

Halliday said the ABA believes that comprehensive recycling programs are better than deposits, and proven to work – especially where deposits are not in effect. The association claims that those nickel deposits actually hurt curbside recycling. ABA materials cited a 1991 study that said deposits deprive curbside programs of revenue by removing valuable aluminum from recycling bins. Callan agreed that was possible, but said policymakers should treat each program as a tool in a toolbox.

But the industry clearly prefers policymakers to make curbside programs their recycling tool of choice, something Coca-Cola demonstrated in mid-February. The cola giant announced its goal to recover and re-use 100 percent of the aluminum used in its cans sold in the U.S. That goal came without timeline, but Coke backed up its commitment at the Daytona 500, stationing an educational trailer to explain the benefits of recycling to NASCAR fans. Coke previously set a goal to recycle 100 percent of their PET plastic bottles and in 2007 supported that goal with $60 million in recycling initiatives. Those efforts included building the world’s largest bottle-to-bottle recycling plant in Spartanburg, S.C. Pepsi has shined up its own green badge by installing the second largest solar power array in the Northwest at their Eugene, Ore. Offices.

While the industry’s biggest players may be in step with the ABA, out at leading luxury brand Fiji, they’re dancing to a somewhat different tune.

Fiji also supports comprehensive recycling programs across the U.S., according to Fiji Brand Manager Clarence Chia, but the nation’s leading imported water company is also looking to support bottle deposits. Chia said Fiji decided to break with the industry as part of their broader efforts to more-clearly define themselves as an environmentally-friendly company, and lead the charge “for all companies in all industries” to be more conscious of the environment.

Fiji publicly trumpeted that charge when Thomas Mooney, Fiji’s senior vice president of sustainable growth, penned an article on the popular news site The Huffington Post suggesting the unthinkable: that the industry should give bottle deposits another look.

“We need to give all consumers the tools and incentives they need to recycle. It makes a difference,” Mooney wrote. “The 11 states that have container deposit laws account for 60% of recycled bottles in the U.S.”

That sentiment was warmly received by Betty McLaughlin, the executive director of the prodeposit lobbying group, the Container Recycling Institute.

“The old model, where everybody runs up to state capitols and locks horns (is) getting old,” McLaughlin said. “It’s not doing anybody any good aside from the lobbyists. It doesn’t really help with recycling and it doesn’t help with climate change.”

McLaughlin has had it with debating the beverage industry about whether there should be bottle deposits. She’d rather debate how deposits should be implemented. A returnable fee helps consumers act responsibly, she said, especially when it comes to RTD beverages – which are usually consumed outside the home. Those containers rarely make it into home-bound recycling bins, she said, but the fees could be the incentive that prevents bottles and cans from landing in the trash or on the side of the road. As for bottles and cans that wind up on the roadside anyway, McLaughlin said, someone else will likely want the deposit badly enough to pick up that container and return it. Especially, she added, if laws catch up with the times in terms of deposit values.

It’s not that McLaughlin doesn’t admit that bottle bills aren’t perfect. Laws in many states cover only soda and beer containers – and not the new bottled water containers that are amping up the waste stream – she said, and deposit rates and handling fees haven’t been updated to keep up with inflation.