Washington Advances New Beverage Container Deposit Return Law with Recycling Coalition’s Support

The Coalition for High Performance Recycling (CHPR) expressed its support for bills S.B. 5502 and its House counterpart, H.B. 1607, introduced in the Washington legislature. Both bipartisan initiatives seek to create a beverage container deposit return program, with the aim of increasing the efficiency of the recycling system and reducing pollution.

S.B. 5502 was introduced in the Senate on January 27 and referred to the Environment, Energy & Technology committee, which held a public hearing on January 29. H.B. 1607 entered the House on the same day and is scheduled for a hearing on February 3. The legislation proposes a 10-cent refund for each beverage container sold and establishes responsibilities for both producers and producer responsibility organizations (PROs) and the state’s Department of Ecology.

The CHPR, comprised of consumer brands, environmental NGOs, material manufacturers, and trade associations such as The Recycling Partnership, Tri-Arrows Aluminum, Ball Corp., and New Belgium Brewing Co. , promotes policies that combine extended producer responsibility (EPR) and deposit return systems, to advance towards a more efficient and sustainable circular economy.

Dylan de Thomas, Vice President of Public Policy at The Recycling Partnership and a CHPR member, highlighted that these laws, along with other pending EPR legislation, will modernize Washington’s recycling system, increase recycling rates, and reduce waste generation and plastic pollution.

A previous attempt to establish EPR in Washington failed in 2023 when the Washington Recycling and Packaging Act (WRAP Act) did not advance before the legislative deadline.