A Special Report on the Environmental and Economic Benefits of Vermont’s Bottle Bill
The report co-released by Container Recycling Institute and VPIRG, A Clean and Green Vermont: A Special Report on the Environmental and Economical Benefits of Vermont’s Bottle Bill, examines ways in which the Bottle Bill is uniquely effective at collecting and recycling beverage containers, and how the program could become even better. Key findings include:
- Places with both bottle deposit programs and curbside recycling consistently have higher recycling rates with lower overall costs.
- On-the-go beverage containers make up a significant portion of consumption (30-50%), and recycling options away-from-home are limited, making the financial incentive of a bottle deposit particularly important and effective.
- Litter is significantly lower in Bottle Bill states, as demonstrated with new studies from the Midwest and Hawaii.
- The quality of material collected through the bottle deposit program is higher, and particularly for glass, that means it can be continually recycled, whereas single-stream glass is currently “downcycled” into single-use material like landfill daily cover.
- Vermont’s Bottle Bill could become even better by implementing best practices established in other regions.