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A series of litter cleanups in the Northeast over the past 15 months show that a non-deposit beverage container is 5 to 14 times more likely to become permanent litter than a beverage container with a 5-cent deposit value. In each of four major litter cleanup projects, a portion of the litter was categorized, including segregation into deposit and non-deposit containers, to permit a comparison.
Scenic Hudson's annual Great River Sweep, involving over 5,000 volunteers at 176 planned cleanups in 98 Hudson Valley communities, was held in April of 2002 in coordination with Earth Day. Volunteers separated beverage containers from other debris and counted the number of New York State returnable containers with a 5-cent deposit value (beer, wine coolers, and carbonated soft drinks) and non- returnable containers (bottled water, fruit juices and drinks, sports drinks, teas, milk, wine and liquor).
The group's findings indicate that New York State non-returnable beverage containers make up 61% of beverage container litter in Hudson Valley Communities, despite accounting for only 23.5% of the beverage container market.
The American Littoral Society (ALS) Northeast Region conducted a similar survey during the Ocean Conservancy's International Coastal Cleanup (ICC) that takes place the third weekend of September all across the US and in over 70 foreign countries. A unique component of the ICC is data gathering by the volunteers prior to removal of the debris from beaches and waterways. ALS coordinates the beach cleanup in New York State.
The 2002 cleanup provided an opportunity to carry the data gathering one step further. Having joined the statewide Coalition for a Bigger Better Bottle Bill in August, the American Littoral Society wanted to determine how many of the littered beverage containers would be covered under legislation introduced in Albany that would expand the bottle bill.
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