There are ten states in the United States of America with container deposit legislation, popularly called "bottle bills" after the Oregon Bottle Bill, the first such legislation that was passed. Container deposit legislation (CDL) requires a refundable deposit on certain types of recyclable beverage containers in order to ensure an increased recycling rate. Studies show that the recycling rate for beverage containers is vastly increased with a bottle bill. The United States' overall beverage container recycling rate is approximately 33%, while states with container deposit laws have a 70% average rate of beverage container recycling. Michigan's recycling rate of 97% from 1990 to 2008 was the highest in the nation, as is its $0.10 deposit. Numerous instances of criminal offenses motivated by the cash refund value of empty containers have been reported. Proponents of container deposit legislation have pointed to the small financial responsibilities of the states. Financing these programs are the responsibility of the beverage industry and consumers. Producers are responsible for disposing of returned products, while consumers are responsible for collecting their refunds. In Connecticut, Maine, Michigan, and Massachusetts the courts have ruled that unclaimed deposits are deemed abandoned by the public and are therefore property of the state. In California and Hawaii uncollected deposits are used to cover the administrative costs of the deposit program. In Iowa and Oregon the beverage distribution industry keeps the unredeemed deposits. Iowa and Oregon's systems are similar and it was found to be highly profitable for beverage distributors in Iowa. Between March 11, 2020, and June 2020, most states with container deposit legislation, except for California and Hawaii, temporarily suspended the bottle bill requirements as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

US states and Canadian provinces with container deposits

[Container-deposit legislation in North America.

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Repealed legislation

Proposed legislation

There have regularly been campaigns in the early 21st century to introduce container-deposit laws in various U.S. states and territories, or to improve or expand existing legislation, including but not limited to the following initiatives:

Controversy

Use as a social service program

While bottle bills were originally intended to incentivize people to return their own containers, the redemption value is often too low for them to bother. This has led to bottle redemption evolving into a lifeline for low-income people and the homeless. Debate arose as to whether canners, people who collect and redeem bottles and cans for a living, should be considered a legitimate part of society and the economy, or whether they are contributing to open-air drug markets in places such as Oregon, where the original bottle bill was passed. This has led to calls to replace the cash rewards with food assistance or store credit instead in order to acknowledge the bills' actual use as a social service program, and prevent the money from being spent on illicit goods.

Burden on consumers

While noted as drastically increasing recycling rates, controversy arose in jurisdictions such as New York as to whether the bottle deposit fees place an undue burden on consumers. This has led to attempts to raise the fee further, to 10¢, being abandoned. Opponents have characterized bottle bills as a form of taxation. Proponents countered by saying consumers could voluntarily get the money back, although $125 million USD in unclaimed deposits are collected yearly by the New York State government alone.

Criminal offenses related to container deposits

Numerous instances of criminal offenses have occurred motivated by the cash refund value of empty containers, such as theft of cases of water from a retail store, burglary into a concession stand, welfare fraud, and theft of bagged empties from a private residence. In Salem, Oregon, Douglas McKay High School athletic concession stand was burgled where approximately ten 24 pack cases of beverages were emptied inside the building and empty containers stolen. The vice president of the club suggested the thieves committed the crime of returning empties for cash at the BottleDrop redemption facility nearby. A Medford, Oregon woman was charged with theft of $40 worth of bottled water from Albertsons. A video of the same woman dumping the empty bottles at the BottleDrop facility operated by the Oregon Beverage Recycling Cooperative has circulated on the Internet. A parolee from Wayne County, New York was charged with illegal exchange/sale of items purchased on food stamps following a purchase of 1,000 bottles of bottled water and dumping them out to cash out on the container deposit. A machete-wielding male subject was observed taking a bag of empty cans set aside on the porch in front of the house and was confronted by a neighbor in Medford, Oregon. In July 2020, an Aloha, Oregon transient attacked another man that was scavenging refundable containers in a residential neighborhood to steal his cans.

Recycling fraud

One form of fraud is redeeming containers brought in from a different state that does not have a deposit or has a lower one. Such a scheme was brought to the awareness of popular culture in the 1990s by the Seinfeld episode "The Bottle Deposit". In 2022, a family in Oakland redeemed 178 tons of containers brought from Arizona, defrauding the state of $7.6 million in deposit payment. In 2017, A Flint man was arrested for buying cans from Indiana to redeem in Michigan, defrauding the system out of more than $1k. In 2023, a Los Angeles ring was arrested in a bust worth more than $4.3 million. In 2007, 13 out of 15 people in a Detroit ring were arrested in a bust called "Operation Can Scam" worth more than $500k. In 2017, a New York ring of five was arrested for smuggling bottles and cans from New Jersey to New York, amongst other crimes involving recycling. In 2018, the Washington transit agency C-Tran banned large bags of empty bottles and cans on its buses due to issues with passengers bringing them onto bus lines that cross the border into Oregon. Oregon has a deposit and Washington does not. Another form of recycling fraud is actually committing fraud in order to gain a profit. In 2017, a New York ring of five was arrested for returning the same bottles twice, as well as other crimes committed to falsely inflate the number of bottles they returned. This ring would also commit bottle smuggling (see above). In 2023, a Sandusky, Michigan man was arrested for returning fake bottle slips, and is suspected of being connected to a large scheme also targeting Lapeer, Bay City, and other cities. In 2019, a Grand Rapids group of five was arrested for returning photocopied bottle slips at numerous Meijer stores in a bust worth thousands of dollars. Using a Eugene Taco Bell as their office, two men were arrested and more are suspected to be involved in a ring that produced more than 100 fake bottle slips worth $14.40 each.