Beverage Container Recycling Fast Facts
Updated July 2024
All numbers represent U.S. Data and come from the Container Recycling Institute’s 2021 Beverage Market Data Analysis (BMDA) unless otherwise specified.
Plastic Water Bottle Sales and Waste Data
Plastic water bottles sales have skyrocketed over the last 25-plus years. The following data from 2021 (CRI’s most recent data set) includes PET and HDPE plastic water bottles combined. PET plastic bottles account for 98% of the total.
- Plastic water bottle sales increased by 2,767% from 1997 (3 billion units) to 2021 (86 billion units) – a 25-fold increase.
- Of the 86 billion plastic water bottles sold in 2021, 29% (25 billion) were recycled and 71% (61 billion) were wasted.
Data displayed consist of non-sparkling water of ≤ 1 gallon packaged in PET (98% of total sales) and HDPE (1% of total sales). Not shown is the 1% packaged in aluminum cans, glass, cartons and pouches. Prior to 2018, excluded imported water (0.3 billion units in 2018). (Data source: Beverage Marketing Corporation, 1998-2024)
Aluminum and Glass Beverage Container Sales and Waste Data
- In 2021, 107 billion aluminum beverage containers were sold, with 55% wasted.
- In 2021, 35 billion glass beverage containers were sold, with 72% wasted.
Americans’ Beverage Container Use
- On a per capita basis, U.S. residents use an average of 899 beverage containers annually. Of these, 34% are recycled and 66% are wasted.
Beverage Container Recycling Rates
everage containers with deposits have significantly higher recycling rates than those without deposits. Ten U.S. states currently operate beverage container deposit return systems (DRS, aka bottle bills).
Details on these programs are available at www.bottlebill.org under “Existing Programs.”
Beverage Container Recycling Waste Scrap Value
- The scrap value of the 197 billion beverage containers wasted annually in the U.S. totals $3.8 billion.
Beverage Container Recycling Jobs Data
- Depending on system parameters and performance, deposit return systems create 11 to 38 times more jobs than curbside recycling systems for beverage containers.*
- national beverage container deposit return system with a 10-cent deposit would support more than 112,000 full-time-equivalent jobs.*
- Data source: “Returning to Work: Understanding the Jobs Impacts From Different Methods of Recycling Beverage Containers,” © Container Recycling Institute, December 2011)
Beverage Container Recycling Environmental Data
- The energy required to replace wasted beverage containers each year is enough to power 3.4 million U.S. households. (assumes 77.1 million British thermal units (MBtu) per household per year)
- A total of 15.3 million metric tons of carbon dioxide (MTCO2) are emitted each year in the U.S. to replace wasted beverage containers. This equates to the annual emissions from 3.3 million cars. (assumes 4.6 MTCO2 per passenger car per year)
Beverage Container Deposit Return Systems: World Map
For more information on beverage container deposit return systems across the globe, visit www.bottlebill.org and click on “Existing Programs.”
The nonprofit Container Recycling Institute (www.container-recycling.org) is a leading authority on the economic and environmental impacts of used beverage containers and other consumer product packaging. Its mission is to make North America a global model for the collection and quality recycling of packaging materials.
Learn how CRI made a difference in 2025 through high-profile initiatives, legislative testimony and industry presentations, and education and collaboration.
