PRIDE OF PLACE

The comprehensive litter & recycling solution
made possible by a Tennessee bottle bill

www.tnbottlebill.org

POP Means Business: Common Misconceptions About Container Deposits

MISCONCEPTION #1: Redeeming empty containers is a dirty and unsafe process that puts food and food preparation areas at risk and forces retailers to devote staff time and precious floor space to handling empty bottles and cans.

· Not anymore. Under Tennessee’s 2007 proposed bill (SB1408/HB1829), retailers are not required to take back empty containers. Instead, redemptions will be handled almost entirely by small, mom-and-pop redemption centers earning a 3-cent-per-container handling fee collected by the state from the beverage distributors. Retailers who choose to take back empty containers will have several automated options for doing so, including reverse vending machines (RVMs) and “drop-and-go” kiosks serving a centralized, electronic processing facility.

MISCONCEPTION #2: If stores don’t offer redemptions, they will be at a competitive disadvantage.

· With up to 90 percent of consumers choosing mom-and-pop redemption centers, this will not be a significant issue. (Besides, they can’t have it both ways!)

MISCONCEPTION #3. Beverage distributors should not be in the business of collecting and hauling empty containers.

· We agree. The proposed bill puts that responsibility entirely on the redemption centers, working in conjunction with centralized recycling facilities providing regular pickup service.

MISCONCEPTION #4. Border communities will lose sales to neighboring states.

· This threat has always been made, but the opposition has produced absolutely no evidence that it happens in significant numbers—not even in Iowa, which is surrounded by six non-deposit states. We have spoken to all ten of the deposit states on the mainland, as well as dozens of grocers and market owners in border communities, and they flatly state that cross-border shopping is not a significant issue. Customers simply do not bother driving across state lines in order to avoid paying a small deposit that they know they will get back. Indeed, some retailers believe a deposit actually works to curtail cross-border shopping, because customers don’t want to have to keep track of deposit and non-deposit containers.

MISCONCEPTION #5. Beverage prices will increase to cover the 3¢ handling fee.

· Not necessarily. A recent survey of Pepsi prices in all 50 states found that prices in the 11 bottle-bill states tended to actually be slightly lower than the national average and in most cases were equal to or lower than the average for their region—a trend that applies to virtually all beverages. In fact, the states with the highest container handling fees, including Maine (3¢), Vermont (3¢) and New York (2¢), have some of the lowest beverage prices in the country. While this may seem counterintuitive, it merely reflects the fact that retail prices are a reflection of numerous market factors, only one of which is actual costs.

MISCONCEPTION #6. Distributors will be forced to leave the state.

· Tennesseans buy 4 billion beverages a year, one of the highest consumption rates in the country. Distributors are not going to walk away from such a large and lucrative market because of a 3-cent handling fee. And remember: Distributors will save in at least three ways under the proposed bill:

· They will no longer pay the existing "litter taxes" on beer and soda that they've been paying since 1981. These taxes—totaling about $5 million a year—currently pay for prison litter crews and litter education via the county litter grants program. That program will continue to be funded—in fact will get twice as much money—under the proposed bill, via $10 million of the unclaimed deposits.

· It is far less expensive to make new beverage containers from recycled ones than it is to make them from raw petroleum, newly mined bauxite or virgin silica. The more containers that get recycled, the greater the savings to distributors and everyone else in the supply chain. It's simple economics, and it’s the reason most industries have embraced recycling. As Peter Coors put it, “All waste is lost profit.”

· All businesses in Tennessee will benefit indirectly from lower trash-handling costs, longer landfill life, reduced litter costs and the various other savings of a bottle bill. They will also benefit, at some level, from the impact of cleaner surroundings and a heightened public image.

MISCONCEPTION #7. Bottle bills can't be a good thing if only 11 states have them.

· First, though it may be only 11 states, it's nearly one-third of the U.S. population. 

· Second, those 11 states are carrying the ball for every industry that relies on recycled containers to keep costs down, including Alcoa (aluminum), Tennessee Eastman (plastic), Mohawk Carpet (plastic) and Corning (glass). Without the high recycling rates achieved by the 11 deposit states, these industries would be significantly less profitable, their products would be considerably more expensive, and they would employ fewer workers. That’s why the Association of Postconsumer Plastic Recyclers recently endorsed bottle bills for the first time in the history of any U.S. trade group. It’s time for the Volunteer State to do its part. 

· Third, that more bottle bills haven’t passed reflects not on their effectiveness nor the high level of public support, but on the power of the status quo and the well-funded lobbying of the opposition.

MISCONCEPTION #8. Bottle bills unfairly single out the beverage industry when litter consists of many other items besides beverage containers.

· First, bottles and cans are the only component of roadside litter with a significant, easily recovered and much-in-demand market value. No industry is clamoring for used food wrappers or cigarette butts.

· Second, despite the opposition’s claims otherwise, beverage containers constitute at least 50 percent of Tennessee’s litter by volume. This is according to every unbiased authority in the state, including TDOT supervisors, sheriffs’ litter crews and citizen groups who do regular cleanups. No other component of the litter stream even comes close. And no other component can be so quickly and almost entirely eliminated.

· Third, most fast-food and other litter breaks apart or breaks down in a matter of weeks, whereas bottles and cans endure for decades if not centuries.

· Fourth, as any mother will remind you, it doesn't matter "what everyone else does." Responsible industries, like responsible individuals, clean up after themselves, do what they can to minimize their impact on their neighbors and strive to set an example for others.

MISCONCEPTION #9. Poor people, especially those who are busy working multiple jobs, will be least likely to redeem their containers.

· This is patently and demonstrably false. Anyone who thinks otherwise needs to spend time in bottle bill states and actually talk to people of modest means. If anything, they are the ones most inclined to redeem their containers, although the truth is that a bottle bill turns virtually everyone—rich, poor and in between—into recyclers. Indeed, a bottle bill is the only thing that consistently does so. That’s why most deposit states have overall recycling rates that are twice as high as Tennessee’s and container recycling rates that are four times higher.

MISCONCEPTION #10. Society doesn’t want more government regulation.

· People may not want government regulation in general, but they DO want a bottle bill. Roughly 75 percent of Tennesseans surveyed say they would welcome a deposit if it helped clean up the roads, a figure consistent with surveys conducted in other non-deposit states. Public support for bottle bills is even higher in the states that already have them—typically 85 to 90 percent. This support reflects the fact that bottle bills not only reduce litter; they raise thousands of dollars for schools and community groups, they increase recycling rates and they improve not only a state’s public image but its self-image.