‘Unlikely bedfellows' push national bottle bill

A parade of industry representatives — the Association of Plastic Recyclers (APR), the Glass Packaging Institute, the Can Manufacturers Institute, machinery supplier Atlantic Packaging and bottled water maker Blue Triton — said they'd welcome more bottle bills, which put a refundable deposit, typically a nickel or dime, on beverage containers to incentivize recycling.

"We are in strong support of state and national bottle bills," said Kate Bailey, APR policy director. "Our biggest challenge right now is a lack of supply. We cannot get enough PET water bottles and soda bottles to recycle.

"Our members have the capacity, the actual infrastructure right now to recycle 50 percent more bottles than we collect," she said, adding that plastic recyclers in APR expect demand to triple in coming years because of recycled-content commitments from companies.

Read the full article from Plastics News.