Statement: Better Bottle Bill passes MA State Senate, would get 3 billion+ more beverage containers into recycling system

Boston—In a voice vote taken in the late afternoon, the MA State Senate passed a bill to modernize the state’s container deposit law, also known as the bottle bill. The bill would expand the types of beverage containers that have a deposit, to cover water bottles, iced teas, fruit juices and more. It would also raise the deposit, unchanged since 1983, from 5c to 10c. In response, MASSPIRG Executive Director Janet Domenitz said:

“This move by the MA Senate will, if passed by the House and signed by Governor Healy, result in less waste, less litter, and money saved by cities and towns in trash pick up. We’re truly grateful to chief sponsor Sen. Cindy Creem for leading the charge in the Senate.”

The MA bottle bill was passed in 1982; when the vast majority of beverage containers on the shelves were carbonated, which is why soda drinks have been covered by the deposit since then. But over the past couple of decades, bottled water, sports and juice drinks, iced teas and more have taken over the market. Many of those beverage containers now become litter or garbage, because they don’t have a deposit.

Recent figures from the Container Recycling Institute show that of the ten states with container deposit laws, MA ranks at the bottom. (see below). The measure passed in the Senate on Tuesday, if enacted into law, would push Massachusetts up toward the top of the list of these states.

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FACT SHEET: How Can We Improve the Massachusetts Bottle Bill?

Ten U.S. states have bottle bills—laws that put deposits for returns on beverage containers. These are the best recycling initiatives we have, diverting an average of 64.7% of the billions of bottles and cans sold each year from landfills and incinerators, where they pollute air and water. But even as one of those ten states, Massachusetts is throwing away approximately 3.1 billion containers a year that could be recycled.  We could decrease that waste by making two simple improvements to our state’s bottle bill: increase the deposit, and expand the types of containers covered by the deposit. Recent data from the Container Recycling Institute shows how.

IMPROVEMENT #1: One key area of improvement in other states has been the increase of the beverage container deposit amount from $0.05 to $0.10. When Massachusetts introduced deposits in 1983, the deposit was a nickel. Today, a 1983 nickel is worth close to 16 cents. Returns have become more than three times less valuable for Massachusetts residents. Oregon and Michigan have established a $0.10 deposit, and have reached 86% and 76% redemption rates, respectively. Massachusetts redemption rate, which was similar to that in the 1980’s and 90’s, has plummeted to 38%. Connecticut, our neighbor, has recently followed OR and MI, increasing the deposit to ten cents for containers to improve their own low redemption rate (45% in 2022).

Data: Redemption Rates and Other Features of 10 U.S. State Deposit Programs,” Container Recycling Institute, 2024.

Bottle Bill data from The Container Recycling Institute shows that states that have increased the deposit to a dime for each container, and states that introduced a higher rate for larger containers, have seen more bottles and cans get returned and recycled. Meanwhile, states like Massachusetts and Connecticut (until its recent deposit increase) have lagged behind at five cent rates, and lagged behind in redemption. As Massachusetts hits a ten-year low for redemption of the beverage containers it sells, consumers appear to have almost given up on redeeming their deposits. An increase to $0.10 would encourage consumers to pick up the habit again and get us closer to the container recycling rates of comparable states which are more than double our own.

IMPROVEMENT #2:  A second essential improvement in bottle bills has been expanding the types of beverages covered by a deposit. Including more types of beverage containers allows for a higher percentage of all containers sold–billions of bottles and cans–to be recycled. Massachusetts’ coverage list is the most limited of the ten programs in the US, and as such, it covers the lowest percentage of beverage containers sold, only 40%.

     Beverage Container Coverage by State (2022)

Data: Redemption Rates and Other Features of 10 U.S. State Deposit Programs,” Container Recycling Institute, 2024.

*Nips are now available for return without a deposit

CRI’s data makes clear the more types of containers covered by deposits, the more successful the program. In 1983 the vast majority of what was sold were carbonated beverages. There was no bottled water or flavored iced tea, for example, on the shelves. Massachusetts is missing out on recycling up to 3.1 of the 6.7 billion bottles and cans we sell because of this oversight.

In 1983, before plastic bottles of juice and tea were everyday products, the vast majority of the billions of beverage containers sold each year had a deposit. The bottle bill was once a holistic recycling effort, but today only 40% of the bottles and cans sold in MA are covered by it.

With these two simple, overdue updates to the bottle bill, Massachusetts could divert billions of beverage containers each year from litter and garbage. Both these changes are proposed under the new Better Bottle Bill, (H3690/S2104), which would revitalize our container redemption system introduced with the original bill.