Container-deposit legislation

Container-deposit legislation is any law that requires collection of a monetary deposit on soft-drink, juice, milk, water, alcoholic-beverage, and/or other reusable packaging at the point of sale. When the container is returned to an authorized redemption center, or to the original seller in some jurisdictions, the deposit is partly or fully refunded to the redeemer (presumed to be the original purchaser). It is a deposit-refund system.

Governments may pass container deposit legislation for several reasons:

Deposits that are not redeemed are often used (escheated) by the governmental entity involved to fund environmental programs; sometimes they are used to cover the costs of processing returned containers.

A & R Thwaites & Co in Dublin, Ireland, announced in 1799 the provision of artificial "soda water" and that they paid 2 shillings a dozen for returned bottles. Schweppes that also was in the business of artificially made mineral waters, had a similar recycling policy about 1800, without any legislation. Scottish bottled beverage companies also voluntarily introduced such a scheme to encourage the return of their bottles for reuse.[1] In Sweden a standard system for deposits on bottles and recycling was established in 1884, eventually by law. The popular demand for a deposit on aluminium cans to reduce littering led to legislation in 1984.

In North America, British Columbia's legislated deposit-return system, enacted in 1970, is the oldest such program in North America.

In the days when bottles were washed and re-used, drinks manufacturers paid for the return of their (proprietary) containers, but with the advent of single-use containers great savings were possible, leaving their disposal as the consumer's responsibility.

...
Wikipedia