Dive Brief:

• A bill proposing a 5-cent bottle deposit in Maryland will be introduced into the General Assembly this week
• Consumers would get a 5-cent return for each bottle brought into a redemption center for recycling. Unredeemed bottles collected through curbside pick-up would go towards a county fund.
• The state is hoping that the bill will contribute to tripling its current container recycling rate, helping it reach its goal of 80% of containers recycled by 2020.

Dive Insight:

Opponents of this particular bill are beverage companies. The Maryland-Delaware-D.C. Beverage Association thinks a better solution would be to expand the curbside collection of recyclables, citing the added cost of construction and running the recycling systems as drawbacks. Bottle bills have experienced pushback in other states. In Massachusetts, a group was established that also included individuals, unions, and trade organizations, in addition to businesses.

This past September, Coca-Cola reps also said that the statewide bottle deposit law in Vermont is too expensive for businesses. The beverage giant would like to see an end to this law, or wants beverage companies out of the equation, instead handing collection responsibilities to recycling companies.

Maryland has been considering a bottle bill for some time. Recently, 7,500 signatures were collected in support of the bill. If approved, the program would begin in 2016.