Container Deposit Legislation

Container Deposit Legislation

Container-deposit legislation (CDL) is any law that requires collection of a monetary deposit on soft-drink, juice, milk, water, alcoholic-beverage, and/or other containers at the point of sale. When the container is returned to an authorized redemption center, or to the original seller in some jurisdictions, the deposit is partly or fully refunded to the redeemer (presumed to be the original purchaser). It is a deposit-refund system.

Governments may pass container deposit legislation for several reasons:

• to encourage recycling and complement existing curbside recycling programs, to reduce energy and material usage for containers
• to specifically reduce beverage container litter along highways, in lakes and rivers, and on other public or private properties (where beverage container litter occurs, a nominal deposit provides an economic incentive to clean it up; this is in fact a significant source of income to some poor individuals and non-profit civic organizations
• to discourage the purchase of the products by raising their initial price,
• to extend the usable lifetime of taxpayer-supported community or regional landfills, and
• to protect children and animals by reducing the likelihood of glass lacerations. Bottles and cans can trap small animals in search for food, often leading to a slow death, through starvation.
• not to depend on commercial entities for recycling. The commercial interests can oppose the recycling for various reasons, although they may have an incentive to reduce the packaging cost, and voluntarily, e.g. by competition, introduce a refund for recycled containers. And the refund policy may be less than just, e.g. no refund without new purchase.

Deposits that are not redeemed are often used (escheated) by the governmental entity involved to fund environmental programs; sometimes they are used to cover the costs of processing returned containers.