Intro to Deposit Return Schemes (DRS) & Bottle Bills
Deposit Return Schemes (DRS) are systems designed to minimize waste and promote recycling of beverage containers through the addition of a deposit (typically three to ten cents USD) on beverage containers at the point of sale. Consumers are encouraged to reclaim the deposit by returning empty containers to a reverse vending machine or designated collection point in participating stores or marketplaces.
DRS systems and bottle bills are present in forty-plus countries and territories around the world, with origins in Finland in the 1950s. Finland’s initial deposit return scheme was focused on glass bottles, which has been expanded to other beverage packaging materials like aluminum, PET, and more.
On the North America continent, the Canadian province of British Columbia was the first to introduce a DRS system, in the year 1970. British Columbia is also a pioneer in extended producer responsibility (EPR) legislation for packaging and paper products; you can read more about their program and the programs of other Canadian provinces in our blog here.
Before we dive into the DRS systems in ten US states in subsequent blogs, let's walk through an illustrative example of how DRS works (in most cases).
How Deposit Return Schemes (DRS) Work
DRS programs often have different deposit rates for materials, but most follow a similar structure. Here is an example with a glass bottle with a ten cents USD deposit.
The beverage company fills the bottle and sells it to a retailer at the normal cost plus a refundable ten cents USD deposit per bottle.
The beverage company takes the ten cents per bottle deposit and gives the collected funds to a system administrator—a non-profit organization who manages DRS.
The consumer purchases the beverage bottle and a ten cent deposit is added to the sticker price (displayed on label).
The consumer drinks the beverage and decides to return the bottle to the store or in a reverse vending machine to reclaim their deposit and keep the bottle in the loop.
The system administrator picks up bottles for processing, and the initial ten cent deposit paid by the store to the beverage company in stage two is returned back to the store completing the flow. It is also common for the system administrator to pay the retailer additional handling fees for each container collected (usually one cent to three cents).
The system administrator takes bottles to counting and sorting and the recycling process starts—being refilled or turned into new raw materials.
Deposit Return Schemes (DRS) are heavily reliant on consumer participation, as bottles can exit the closed-loop system in stage four if they decide reclaiming the deposit is not worth their time. When consumers participate, DRS can be an efficient system to reduce waste and preserve natural capital, recirculate materials and retain economic value, and increase state and nationwide recycling rates.
In the articles covering state programs, we will compare the recycling rates of PET, aluminum, and glass in the US states with DRS and those with no programs—the differences might surprise you!
Bottle Bills in the US
The map above shows the states in the US that have DRS programs, denoted in green and orange. States in orange are those that have passed EPR for packaging programs and also have deposit return schemes, including Oregon, California, and Maine; you can read more about these programs in our research article here.
The ten US states that have DRS programs include:
Oregon
California
Maine
New York
Iowa
Connecticut
Vermont
Hawaii
Michigan
Massachusetts
Now that you have a grasp on how DRS works, explore the ten DRS systems in the US in our Deposit Return Schemes (DRS) in the United States index page.
