Nickeled Back: Oregon to Tax Bottled Water

For years people have been making weekly bottle runs, reaping small change from soda and beer cans. In Oregon they will soon be able to do the same with water. A change to the state’s Bottle Bill implements a five cent deposit on each water bottle.

The policy, officials hope, will encourage consumers to recycle the more than 200 million containers they purchase every year. While only 20 percent of soda and beer bottles make it to the landfill, more than half of water bottles accumulate there.

Dan McGee, owner of water bottling company Oregon Rain, looks forward to the change. “I think adding water — given its current volumes — when you look at the total number of plastic bottles that are produced — was the correct thing to do,” he says. “The more bottles that are returned, the more bottles that are recycled, the better it is for the environment.”

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Source: Oregon Public Broadcasting