Soju is a clear and colorless Korean distilled alcoholic beverage. It is usually consumed neat. Its alcohol content varies from about 12.9% to 53% alcohol by volume (ABV), although since 2007 low alcohol soju below 20% has become more popular.
A reusable bottle is a bottle that can be reused, as in the case as by the original bottler or by end-use consumers. Reusable bottles have grown in popularity by consumers for both environmental and health safety reasons. Reusable bottles are one example of reusable packaging.
The Oregon Bottle Bill is a container-deposit legislation enacted in the U.S. state of Oregon in 1971 that went into effect in October 1972. It was the first such legislation in the United States. It was amended in 2007 and 2011. It requires applicable beverages in applicable sizes in glass, plastic or metal cans or bottles sold in Oregon to be returnable with a minimum refund value. The refund value was initially 5 cents until April 1, 2017, when it increased to 10 cents. The Oregon Legislature has given the Oregon Liquor Control Commission the authority to administer and enforce the Bottle Bill. Oregon Beverage Recycling Cooperative (OBRC), a private cooperative owned by retailers and beverage distributors, administers the collection and transportation of returned containers and keeps all the unclaimed deposits. Materials from returned containers are sold by the OBRC and proceeds are handed out to beverage distributors. In 2022, the bottle bill was expanded to include canned wine, which will become eligible for redemption on July 1, 2025.
TOMRA is a Norwegian multinational corporation manufacturing collection and sorting products, such as reverse vending machines for the food, recycling and mining industries. With over 82,000 (RVMs) installed, 10,000 food sorters and 6,000 recycling systems worldwide, TOMRA is the market leader in its industries.
Coca-Cola Amatil Limited (CCA) was an Australian bottler of non-alcoholic beverages that existed from 1904 to 2021, when it merged with Coca-Cola European Partners to form Coca-Cola Europacific Partners. It was one of the largest bottlers of non-alcoholic ready-to-drink beverages in the Asia-Pacific region and one of the world's five major Coca-Cola bottlers. CCA operated in six countries—Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Fiji and Samoa. The company also bottled beer and coffee.
Container-deposit legislation is any law that requires the collection of a monetary deposit on beverage containers at the point of sale and/or the payment of refund value to the consumers. When the container is returned to an authorized redemption center, or retailer in some jurisdictions, the deposit is partly or fully refunded to the redeemer. It is a deposit-refund system.
A reverse vending machine (RVM) is a machine that allows a person to insert a used or empty glass bottle, plastic bottle, or aluminum can in exchange for a reward. After inserting the recyclable item, it is then compacted, sorted, and analyzed according to the number of ounces, materials, and brand using the universal product code on the bottle or can. Once the item has been scanned and approved, it is then crushed and sorted into the proper storage space for the classified material. Upon processing the item, the machine rewards people with incentives, such as cash or coupons.
Glass recycling is the processing of waste glass into usable products. Glass that is crushed or imploded and ready to be remelted is called cullet. There are two types of cullet: internal and external. Internal cullet is composed of defective products detected and rejected by a quality control process during the industrial process of glass manufacturing, transition phases of product changes and production offcuts. External cullet is waste glass that has been collected or reprocessed with the purpose of recycling. External cullet is classified as waste. The word "cullet", when used in the context of end-of-waste, will always refer to external cullet.
California Redemption Value (CRV), also known as California Refund Value, is a regulatory fee paid on recyclable beverage containers in the U.S. state of California. The fee was established by the California Beverage Container Recycling and Litter Reduction Act of 1986 and further extended to additional beverage types in California State Senate Bill No. 1013, signed into law on September 28, 2022 and taking effect on January 1, 2024; since 2010 the program has been administered by the Cal/EPA California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle).
Recycling in the Netherlands is under the responsibility of local authorities. Different localities implement different systems. Municipalities all over the country publish a calendar, on a yearly basis, of the pickup dates and the addresses of the waste separation and recycling stations.
The Tennessee Bottle Bill is citizen-supported container-deposit recycling legislation, which if enacted will place a 5-cent deposit on beverage containers sold in Tennessee. The bill applies to containers made of aluminum/bimetal, glass or any plastic, containing soft drinks, beer/malt beverages, carbonated or non-carbonated waters, plain or flavored waters, energy drinks, juices, iced teas or iced coffees. Milk/dairy, nutritional drinks and wine and spirits are not included in the program.
ecycler is an environmental technology company and brand that provides a marketplace for discarders and collectors of recyclable waste in areas where no organized pickup is available.
There are ten states in the United States with container deposit legislation, popularly called "bottle bills" after the Oregon Bottle Bill, the first such legislation that was passed.
The Ontario Deposit Return Program (ODRP), also simply known as Bag it Back, is a regulation of the province of Ontario, Canada. Its purpose is to divert recyclable materials from landfill or low-quality recycling uses by charging a fee for each alcoholic beverage container sold in the province, and processing the material for re-use or other recycling activities once the containers are returned for a refund of the deposit fee. Customers forfeit the deposit fee if the container is not returned.
Bottles are able to be recycled and this is generally a positive option. Bottles are collected via kerbside collection or returned using a bottle deposit system. Currently just over half of plastic bottles are recycled globally. About 1 million plastic bottles are bought around the world every minute and only about 50% are recycled.
Container deposit legislation (CDL), also known as a container deposit scheme (CDS), is a scheme that was first implemented in South Australia in 1977 and over the decades has spread to the Northern Territory in 2012, New South Wales in 2017, the Australian Capital Territory in June 2018, Queensland in November 2018 and Western Australia in October 2020 and Victoria in November 2023. The scheme is due to commence in the last remaining state of Tasmania in early 2024.
The Massachusetts Bottle Bill is a container-deposit legislation dealing with recycling in the United States that originally passed in the U.S. state of Massachusetts in 1982 as the Beverage Container Recovery Law. Implemented in 1983, the law requires containers of carbonated beverages to be returnable with a minimum return value of $0.05. The bottle bill does not cover containers of non-carbonated beverages like water, tea, or sports drinks. The law also establishes the handling fee paid by distributors to redemption centers, $0.0325 per unit as of July 5, 2013, and to retailers $0.0225 per unit. As the number of non-deposit beverage containers has increased to represent over one-third of beverage containers sold, the Bottle Bill has no influence on these non-deposit containers, with the result that these containers are three times more likely to be found as litter in Massachusetts communities. Additional studies indicate that beverage containers covered by the state's container deposit system are redeemed at approximately 70% and another 9% are recycled via curbside programs. Conversely, containers that are not covered, such as bottled water, juices, and sports drinks, are recycled at approximately 25%.
Kjell Olav A. Maldum is a Norwegian entrepreneur and business leader. He is a public figure in the Norwegian movement for bottle recycling, an equivalent to bottle bill in the US and cash for container in Australia. Since 2007, he has been serving as the CEO and Chairman of Infinitum AS, the operator of the national paid recycling scheme for bottles and cans marked with the official "recyclable" or "deposit" logo in Norway.
The history of bottle recycling in the United States has been characterized by four distinct stages. In the first stage, during the late 18th century and early 19th century, most bottles were reused or returned. When bottles were mass-produced, people started throwing them out, which led to the introduction of bottle deposits. However, during the second stage, after World War II, consumption patterns changed and nonreturnable containers became popular, which littered the environment. Some states implemented "bottle bills" that instituted deposits. The beverage-container industry first implemented private recycling programs and then pushed for municipal curbside recycling as an alternative to "bottle bills". More recently, PET bottles have largely replaced other materials. The United States used to be the front-runner when it came to recycling PET, but European countries have since outpaced the US.
A canner participates in canning, the collection and redemption of deposit-marked beverage containers for recycling. Canning is an activity undertaken by individuals or small teams, typically to earn an income. Canning is only possible in nations, states, or municipalities which have enacted container-deposit legislation.
