Texas we have a PROBLEM!
Beverage containers are polluting our waterways, littering our highways, filling (overflowing!) our trash cans.
● Each plastic bottle is a miniature oil spill. It takes 1/4 a cup of crude oil
to make a 16oz water bottle.
- Each aluminum can recycled saves enough energy to run a TV for 2 hours.
|
- Glass manufacturers plan to use 50% of recycled material to produce new glass bottles by the end of 2013. This step will save enough energy to power 45,000 households for a year, and 181,550 tons of waste from landfills per month.
- Beverage containers made up 29% of litter by count in the 2009 TxDot Visible Litter Study.
- The General Land Office's September 2011
Adopt-a-Beach program found over 34,000 beverage containers on 190 miles. (Do the math!)
|
The SOLUTION!
- Across the nation 5 cent deposits PREVENT containers from becoming the wasted products we see in Texas.
- Clean ups only treat the SYMPTOMS of litter and wasteful behaviors.
- Curbside works for the 30% of people who have it. At approximately $60 a bin, it would cost Texas over $432 million to cover all the single family homes. Not so lucky are apartment dwellers, businesses, and schools.
|
● Refundable deposits move containers from the waste stream,
into the recycling stream.
● Deposit programs help capture the away-from-home drink containers (i.e. parks and beaches). |