Groundbreaking New Report
Integrating Reuse Into California’s Beverage Container Deposit System: A Feasibility Study
The Story of Stuff Project commissioned Eunomia Consulting to investigate how the state of California might create a system for converting a quarter of the state’s 28 billion beverages sold annually, to reusable containers alongside the benefits of doing so.
The feasibility study found that, in line with recent EU targets, that milestone could be reached within a decade and doing so would bring widespread economic, environmental and social benefits including:
- Reducing the demand for plastic by around 3 billion bottles annually;
- Removing 32 million littered bottles and cans from the environment annually;
- Removing a quarter of a million metric tons of CO2 every year;
- Generating $75 million savings from waste management each year;
- Generating 11,000 jobs to the State.
The report also assessed the infrastructural requirements to reach the targets and the costs associated with that infrastructural development. While the report specifically modeled for California, it has widespread applicability for states with deposit return systems (bottle bills). You can read and download the executive summary or the full report.
