Federal Bottle Bill: H.R.4238 Bottle Recycling Climate Act

Congressman Ed Markey introduced H.R 4238 Bottle Recycling Climate Act of 2007 under the former administration.  The reintroduction and passage of this bill would have a major positive impact on the environment. 

This bill addresses current environmental issues such as the reduction of greenhouse gases and energy conservation.  But this bill would also have a major economic  impact.  It would create thousands of new jobs and businesses that can't be outsourced overseas.     

In addition we support the reintroduction of Congressman Ed Markey's bill; H.R. 4238 Bottle Recycling Climate Act of 2007 to the new administration for the following reasons:

(1) The energy required to manufacture beverage containers from recycled containers is often less than the energy required to create new beverage container materials from raw materials.

(2) Recycling beverage containers would reduce municipal solid waste and reduce the energy and heat-trapping emissions generated in the manufacture of new aluminum, plastics, and other beverage container materials.

(3) An average of 350,000,000 beverage bottles and cans are sent to landfills, incinerated, or littered every day.  This represents 40-60% of all litter. 

(4) In 2006, less than half of the 100,000,000,000 aluminum beverage cans purchased were recycled, resulting in the waste of 800,000 tons of aluminum. Nine of ten plastic water bottles, 30,000,000 bottles a year, end up as garbage or litter, where they take up to 1,000 years to biodegrade.

(5) A national system for requiring a refund value on the sale of all beverage containers would provide a positive incentive to individuals to clean up the environment, and would result in a high level of reuse and recycling of such containers and would help reduce the costs and environmental dangers associated with solid waste management and container manufacturing.

(6) States with bottle bills have container recycling rates ranging from 60 percent to over 90 percent, compared to the national average recycling rate of 34 percent.

(7) A national system of beverage container recycling is consistent with the intent of the Solid Waste Disposal Act (42 U.S.C. 6901 et seq.).