California’s ‘bottle bill’ leads the way

After 40 years, California’s deposit-return-recycling system is nearing a total of 550 billion recovered beverage containers. The scheme cuts litter, creates jobs, recycles containers into new products and returns cash to consumers.

The state’s Beverage Container Recycling and Litter Reduction Act was signed into law on 29 September 1986, amid rising concern over litter, landfill space, and natural resource depletion. In 2025 alone, Californians recycled a record 20.3 billion beverage containers, or 71% of containers sold.

Supporting business

‘Over the past four decades, Californians have kept nearly 550 billion beverage containers out of our environment and landfills, putting money back in their pockets and supporting local businesses that turn empty beverage containers into new products,’ says CalRecycle Director Zoe Heller. ‘New efforts are making it even easier for Californians to cash in and recycle more with modern technology and more recycling sites that meet consumers where they are.’

California was among the first states to pass a ‘Bottle Bill’ and today it is the nation’s largest deposit-return-recycle system. Consumers pay a deposit of five, ten or 25 cents on eligible beverages and redeem containers to be recycled at more than 1 400 locations.

Modernisation reforms are expanding convenience for consumers, creating new opportunities for businesses and increasing the supply of clean recycled material for California manufacturers by:

• adding wine, liquor, and previously excluded juice containers to the programme
• offering modern takeback options including reverse vending machines, mobile recycling, and bag drop-off recycling
• offering more recycling opportunities in areas without recycling centres
• growing California’s glass and plastic recycling and remanufacturing businesses that rely on clean recycled feedstock for new products

Fun Facts

• Californians recycle about 70% of beverage containers each year, one of the highest recycling rates and total volumes in the world
• lined up, recycled beverage containers could make 48 round trips to the moon, or circle California 10 478 times
• using recycled rather than virgin resources has prevented 52.5 million tonnes of CO2e, equal to taking 12.2 million cars off the road for a year
• energy savings total 260.6 billion kilowatt-hours, enough to power every California home for three years
• recycling containers saved 556 billion gallons of water and 57 million tonnes of raw bauxite ore, crude oil and sand by using recycled materials instead of virgin resources