Verallia North America has urged legislators in Indiana, US, to enact a law requiring a $0.05 or $0.10 refundable deposit on beverages sold in recyclable containers. "More than 13m/tonnes or approximately 200bn aluminium, plastic and glass beverage containers are sold annually in the US, which includes some 34bn glass bottles. However, more than 125bn of these recyclable beverage containers (over 60%) are land-filled each year," Verallia said. The company, which employs more than 1600 people across Indiana, hopes that by encouraging recycling through a so-called "bottle bill" it will be able to reduce the amount of raw materials, energy and CO2 emissions used in the glass manufacturing process. There is a robust market for recycled glass in Indiana, as the cullet demand for the four glass manufacturing plants in the state far exceeds all the glass containers used in the state annually. 10 US states have implemented bottle bills, formally known as "beverage container deposit laws," which require the consumer to pay a deposit to the retailer when buying a beverage, which is then returned if the container is recycled. However, at present only 15-20% of the beer bottles made by Verallia's factory in Dunkirk, Indiana, use cullet, "And we're lucky to get that," Verallia VP Stephen Segebartha told a joint meeting of the Indiana House and Senate environmental affairs committees.
