International Review of Waste Management Policy - Department of ...

Figure 16-2: Performance of US States with and Without Deposits, 1999
317
Recycling rate (%) and per capita containers
recovered in the US (1999)
490
72 28
Also of interest is the performance of deposit schemes in the context of wider
recycling systems. In Sweden, for example, the recycling rate for plastic packaging
increased from 17% to 30% between 2003 and 2005 (44% in 2006). In the same
period, recycling rates for PET under the deposit scheme were 77% to 82% (85% in
2007). This, in and of itself, might not prove much. The components of plastic
packaging are many and varied, and PET bottles are readily recyclable. Perhaps more
telling, however, is the performance in respect of metals. Metal packaging recycling
rates were around 65% in 2004-2005, but the recycling rate for aluminium under the
deposit system was 85% to 86% in the years 2002 to 2007. More impressive still is
the return rate for glass bottles which is 99% on 33cl bottles and 90% on 50cl
bottles. 343 In Denmark, return rates in 2007 were 84% for cans, 93% for plastic
bottles and 91% for glass bottles. 344
Similarly, in Germany, recycling rates in 2005 for plastics, tinplate and aluminium
were 50%, 85%, 76% and 79% for plastics, tinplate, aluminium and glass,
respectively. The reported return rates under the deposit scheme are 95-98%, but
these rates are not official. 345
Figure 16-3 shows collection rates achieved in 2002 in deposit schemes. This shows
that very few countries see low rates of return, with some jurisdictions achieving close
to 100% return rates. As would be expected under economic theory, deposit
343 http://www.sverigesbryggerier.se/eng/1-emballage/1-index.html, accessed January 2009.
344 ERM (2008) Review of Packaging Deposit Systems for the UK, Report for DEFRA, December 2008,
accessed from http://randd.defra.gov.uk/Document.aspx?Document=WR1203_7722_FRP.pdf
345 Wolfgang Ringel (2008) The German Deposit System on One Way Beverage Packaging,
Presentation to the first Global Deposit Summit, Berlin 2008.
International Review of Waste Policy: Annexes
191
Deposit states (10) Non-deposit states (40)
Recycling rate Containers per capita recovered