The attitude displayed by the officials of the Greater Chicago Recycling Industry Council (Voice, Oct. 11) was disappointing. It was clear that they feel it necessary to recycle everything to insure that recycling retains an economic incentive. What that suggests is that recycling is now the goal rather than a means toward its original objective of reducing garbage.
A survey cited by Garbage Magazine suggests that the reusable bottle still remains the most economical delivery method for soft drinks. Further, its environmental impact was comparable to the throwaway. If those returnables can be reused, what’s wrong with that?
It seems to me the soft drink bottling companies have a great deal going here. Previously, they managed to collect those bottles, refill them and recover their costs. Up until the days they disappeared from the grocers’ shelves, the refillable bottles consistently proved the best buy from the consumers’ perspective.
If bottlers can force consumers to not only pay more for the product but also pay for the disposal of the container, their profits will grow. How do they do that? Withdraw the returnables from the grocers’ shelves.
The consumer must still deal with that container whether he hauls it back to the retailer, the curb or a collection center. In addition, the cost of disposal remains with the consumer because he pays higher garbage disposal fees. State and local governments are spending increasing amounts of energy and tax dollars collecting, sorting or complying with federal landfill mandates.
When those containers carry a significant deposit, there will be plenty of economic incentive to return them. If the consumer doesn’t care, someone else will.
The bottlers need to be put back in the loop. A deposit requirement will keep them focused on better solutions for their products.
If a mandatory deposit law means the cost of the product must go up, so be it. I would rather see the disposal cost borne in the price of the product than in my tax bill. I’d rather have the city spending its funds feeding and protecting its children than trying to figure out if a blue recycling bag will get a plastic bottle back to Pepsi or Coke.
The disposal problem should be returned to the bottlers. Then they will find a solution. But they won’t do it voluntarily like the thousands of people around this country who donate their time and energy sorting empty containers in order to sell them back to the bottlers at a price that only makes economic sense to the bottler.
