[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 23]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 31839]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




          THE BOTTLE RECYCLING CLIMATE PROTECTION ACT OF 2007

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. EDWARD J. MARKEY

                            of massachusetts

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, November 15, 2007

  Mr. MARKEY. Madam Speaker, today I am introducing the Bottle 
Recycling Climate Protection Act of 2007, which would establish a 
national program to promote the recycling of beverage containers, 
including bottled water, iced teas, sports drinks and carbonated 
beverages, by offering a national 5 cent deposit. This bill would help 
move the Nation towards a future of less global warming pollution by 
reducing the energy and related heat-trapping emissions needed to 
create the materials used in new beverage containers.
  Twenty-five years ago, my state of Massachusetts became one of the 
first states to pass a state bottle bill in order to encourage the 
recycling of cans and bottles. Since its inception, Massachusetts' 
bottle law has been a tremendous success. In 2006, over 2 billion 
beverage containers were sold in Massachusetts and nearly 70 percent of 
them were recycled rather than littered or incinerated.
  Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis famously called the States 
``laboratories of democracy''--the places where innovative solutions to 
the Nation's challenges are developed. Nowhere is the States' 
pioneering role in our system more vital today than in the area of 
energy independence and global warming. On these critical issues, the 
States are in the vanguard of a green energy revolution. In the case of 
the bottle bill, 11 states have acted as laboratories for more than 2 
decades, very successfully. Now is the time to move this important 
program onto the national stage.
  Recycling and reusing these bottles not only reduces the amount of 
litter that ends up in our streets and the amount of trash that ends up 
in our landfills, it also dramatically reduces the amount of global 
warming pollution that ends up in our atmosphere. If all of the 58 
billion aluminum cans that are thrown away every year in the United 
States were recycled, it would cut the emissions of heat-trapping 
carbon pollution by nearly 6 million tons--the equivalent of the 
pollution from more than one million cars. Cans made from recycled 
aluminum use 95 percent less energy than cans manufactured with new 
materials.
  In addition, plastic water and juice bottles have become increasingly 
prevalent since many state bottle bills were initially adopted. While 
less than half of the aluminum cans sold every year are recycled, an 
astounding 80 percent of the 60 billion plastic bottles sold each year 
are not recycled. Including plastic bottles in a national bottle bill 
would lead to significant savings in energy and oil consumption. One 
ton of recycled plastic saves 5,774 kWh (kilowatt hours) of electricity 
and 685 gallons of oil.
  I am proud to introduce this important bill today on America Recycles 
Day. Passing this bill would allow Congress to send the nation a global 
warming message in a bottle. We can still quench our thirst while 
reducing our thirst for energy. And we can have carbon dioxide in our 
fizzy drinks, while cutting down on heat-trapping carbon dioxide in the 
atmosphere.

                          ____________________