Recycling is a practical and economical way to preserve scarce or sensitive resources, as well as keeping unnecessary refuse out of our communities' landfills. Recycled plastic containers, glass bottles, and paper have all become ordinary fixtures in daily life.

As the U.S. works to develop an energy policy, recycling and renewable materials can play an important role in saving energy and keeping our environment clean. One way Congress can legislation to promote recycling in a common sense way is the National Beverage Producer Responsibility Act.

While traditional bottle bill legislation prescribes specific roles and responsibilities for retailers and distributors, the National Beverage Producer Responsibility Act takes a different approach. This bill sets a performance standard which industry must meet and allowing industry the freedom to design the most efficient deposit-return program to reach the standard. By providing beverage companies the flexibility to structure and operate their own container recovery programs, this legislation simply extends the beverage company's supply chain to include the management of empty containers after consumption.