Several manufacturers in Indiana are appealing to the public for a greater recycling effort for materials such as glass, aluminum and plastic which too often end up as solid waste. Glass cullet in particular is needed by Indiana factories operated by Verallia, Anchor Glass and Owens-Illinois. These companies represent more than 1,600 jobs in the state, according to a recent story.
The story notes that about 65 percent of glass cullet in the U.S. comes from the 10 states with bottle bills. These include California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, Oregon and Vermont. While these states have glass recovery rates of 64 percent, a 12 percent average prevails for states not having bottle return requirements, such as Indiana.
In 2009, lawmakers in Indiana proposed a bottle bill which would include a 10 cent fee. It never received a committee hearing. According to the story, support of a bottle bill by business, however, is mixed. Many businesses believe that recycling should be driven by producer responsibility efforts. The evidence, however, would suggest that such initiatives have a very long way to go catch up to the bottle bill states.
Comments