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20/20 Vision: Setting our Sights on Zero Beverage Container Waste by 2020

Millions of consumers who recycle every day think because they recycle their bottles and cans, everyone else is recycling too. In fact, we landfill twice as many beverage containers as we recycle: 411 per capita per year.

Upstream environmental impactsof this wasting include: energy consumption equivalent to 36 million barrels of crude oil per year, annual generation of 4.5 million tons of greenhouse gasses, emission of a host of toxics to the air and water, and damage to wildlife habitat. Downstream impacts include landfilling and littering of more than 135 beverage cans and bottles each year.

In an effort to reverse this wasting trend and make beverage consumption more sustainable, CRI will launch a campaign in 2006 we are calling 2020 Vision: Setting our Sights on Zero Beverage Container Waste. We can’t get to Zero Waste overnight, so we are setting an interim goal of cutting beverage container waste by 25% by 2008.

We invite consumers, state and local government agencies, recycling businesses, public and elected officials, socially responsible investors, beverage producers, and retailers to join us in bringing national attention to the global environmental impacts of making more than 135 billion new beverage containers each year from virgin materials.

Please get your organization, local government, public agency or company to pass a resolution in support of Zero beverage container waste (see sample resolution on this page) and send a copy to CRI.

SAMPLE RESOLUTION

In support of cutting beverage container waste by 25% by 2008

and attaining Zero Waste for beverage containers by 2020

WHEREAS, the number of beverage containers “wasted” (not recycled) annually in the United States grew from 72 billion units in 1993 to 127 billion in 2003 (a 76% increase); and

WHEREAS, the tonnage of aluminum beverage cans wasted (landfilled, littered or incinerated) in the U.S. increased from 641,000 tons in 1993 to 820,000 tons in 2003 and the aluminum can recycling rate declined from an all-time high of 65% in 1994 to 44% in 2003; and

WHEREAS, PET plastic beverage bottle waste increased from about 460,000 tons in 1993 to 1.4 million tons in 2003—a trend which shows no signs of slowing; and

WHEREAS, more than 6 million tons of glass bottles and jars are landfilled annually, and thus not used for beneficial purposes such as making new bottles or fiberglass; and

WHEREAS, the local environmental effects of this beverage container wasting include increased burdens on county landfills and possible future threats to groundwater; toxic emissions from combusting containers in municipal solid waste incinerators; and bottle and can litter which is an aesthetic nuisance as well as a threat to public safety and to domestic and wild animals; and

WHEREAS, the global environmental impacts of beverage container wasting include the unnecessary energy consumption of more than 35 million barrels of crude oil equivalent and a host of natural resources which are used to make new containers from virgin materials to replace those wasted, thereby contributing to habitat loss, air and water pollution, and greenhouse gas emissions; and

WHEREAS, the economic effects of this beverage container wasting include an increased burden on the local taxpayer who must pay to landfill, incinerate, or otherwise pick up these wasted or littered containers, with no benefit accruing therefrom; and

WHEREAS, economic effects of this beverage container wasting also include a shortage of available, high quality feedstock for various recycling companies, particularly in the plastic reclamation industry, but also in the glass and aluminum recycling industries; and

WHEREAS, if the business infrastructure is damaged and market opportunities are reduced, the burden of managing discarded consumer goods will be much heavier for municipalities; and

WHEREAS, it is technically and economically feasible to achieve recycling rates in excess of 80% with various policy measures; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED, That [ ] does hereby endorse a goal of reducing beverage container waste by 25% by 2008, and of achieving zero beverage container waste by 2020; and be it further

RESOLVED, That the [Clerk, Secretary/Other] of [ ] is hereby directed to forward copies of this resolution by mail to:

Zero Beverage Container Waste Campaign
c/o The Container Recycling Institute
1776 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Suite 800, Washington, DC 20036
or by email to cri@container-recycling.org