Texas needs a “bottle bill”

Last week, the Senate Natural Resources held a hearing on SB 728, which would create a deposit-refund system for beverage containers, as is in place in ten states. The bill by Senator Nathan Johnson would encourage “consumers to recycle their beverage containers in order to save natural resources and preserve landfill space. These beverage container deposit laws incentivize recycling through similar
deposit-refund systems, in which a consumer pays typically a five-cent deposit to the retailer per purchased beverage and receives a refund when the empty container is returned to a redemption center.” I was proud to testify in support of the bill.