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Refillable Bottles:  Reducing Waste at the Source

The cans and bottles that are recycled into new containers or new products are easing the burden on the environment, but recycling is clearly a "second-best" solution to our solid waste problems.  Reuse is a more environmentally responsible waste management option than recycling, and thus precedes recycling in the solid waste reduction hierarchy of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA). 

Although approximately one-half of all beverage containers purchased annually in the U.S. are recycled, Americans trash more than 270 million beer and soft drink containers every day. 

The manufacturing of non-refillable, one-way glass, aluminum, plastic and bi-metal containers is an energy intensive process that depletes our mineral resources, pollutes air and water resources, and generates millions of tons of post-consumer waste each year.  Replacing one-way beverage bottles and cans with refillable bottles conserves energy and natural resources, and reduces waste at the source. 

Several industry-funded studies confirm this fact.  For example, a 1989 study conducted for the National Association for Plastic Container Recovery (since renamed the "National Association for PET Container Resources"), found that a refillable glass bottle, used as few as eight times, consumes less energy than any other container including recycled containers.  The study further found that the 16 ounce refillable bottle produces the least amount of waterborne waste and the fewest atmospheric emissions of all container types. 

As recently as 1960, 95% of all packaged soft drinks and 53% of all packaged beer was sold in refillable glass bottles.  Those bottles required a deposit and were returned for reuse twenty or more times.  The centralization of the beverage industry, the increased mobility of our society, and the desire for convenience have resulted in the virtual disappearance of the reusable bottle.  Today, refillables make up less than 1% of packaged soft drinks and less than 4% of packaged beer. 

There are a number of options for increasing the percentage of refillable bottles available to consumers.  They include the following:

• public pressure on beer and soft drink companies to make refillables available;
• introduction of refillable PET plastic soda bottles which are lightweight and convenient;
• legislation requiring that a certain percentage of beverage containers be allocated for refillables;
• legislation requiring deposits on all beverage containers;
• differential deposits-full refund for refillable bottles and partial refund for one-way deposit containers;
• bans or taxes on one-way containers

Container Recycling Institute