Recycling:Glass Bottle Bill-Its History in the United States
Posted on January 21, 2009
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The State of Oregon’s landmark 1971 legislation that established the “first bottle bill” was the first law regarding any form of container waste in the United States. It beginnings were the result of hikers and backpackers who were constantly seeing container waste in the forests of Oregon. Even though British Columbia enacted their very first such bill a year earlier and Vermont passed an attempt to outlaw disposable containers in the early 1950s, Oregon’s first bottle bill was to become a model by which several states and provinces would modeled their own laws in the coming decade.
It has become extremely successful. Even though states without such bills average about 23% rates of recycling of such containers, the State of Oregon’s rate has held steady at about 90% for over 30 years.
Oregon’s law mainly focuses on the specific industries of soda and beer, regardless of the types of container they use. In 2007, Oregon was also among the first to add water bottles made of plastic to the list of beverages covered under the bill.
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