Perhaps, the most visible evidence of a popular ethic of discarding materials rather than recycling them, beverage containers litter American highways and city streets in distressingly high numbers. The "Keep America Beautiful" campaign and similar appeals to consumers' consciences have not eliminated the problem. Aesthetic concerns, greater awareness of the energy savings that result from reuse of manufactured items, and the growing cost of municipal solid waste disposal have all increased state and federal interest in legislation designed either to ban outright the sale of nonreturnable beverage containers or to create strong economic incentives for the manufacture of returnable containers. Both Vermont and Oregon have passed "bottle bill" legislation to deal with the container problem, and those statutes have been upheld by the courts against challenges by container manufacturers, bottlers, and retailers. Numerous municipalities have enacted similar legislation, with varying success in the courts.¹ Along with the broader problem of dealing with the nation's solid wastes, Congress is presently considering several alternative bottle bills.

EPA has recently identified three major types of legislation designed to solve the beverage container problem.² Methods include a mandatory deposit system for all beverage containers, a ban on production and sale of non-refillable containers, and litter taxes on containers to finance litter cleanup. Due to present technological difficulties in separating recyclable waste products from the mass of consumer solid waste, methods designed to reduce the output of litter, such as the first two, are considered by environmentalists to be preferable to schemes for financing litter collection. Industry spokesmen have opposed all measures other than a small litter tax on each container, claiming that increases in consumption of their products over the past years have resulted largely from the "convenient and attractive" nonreturnable packaging.