Businesses Support A Recycling Refund Program in Washington State

December 3, 2025

Businesses Support a Recycling Refund Program in Washington State to Unlock the Full Potential of Comprehensive EPR

Dear Governor Ferguson,

We, the undersigned, represent businesses with deep connections to the Washington State economy and significant interests in recycling, including leading consumer brands, product packaging manufacturers, packaging material suppliers, and recycling technology companies. At this pivotal moment in Washington’s proud tradition of environmental stewardship, we offer our partnership and expertise to help advance recycling policies that are both environmentally effective and economically practical across our value chains.

Earlier this year, your Administration and partners in the House and Senate enacted legislation focused on supporting curbside recycling in Washington. The Recycling Reform Act (SB 5284), which you signed into law May 17, 2025, will establish an Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) program for packaging and paper products beginning in 2030. Producer leadership with government oversight—a key feature of the Recycling Reform Act—has meaningful potential to improve recycling, expanding access for citizens, reducing costs for municipalities and taxpayers, and promoting efficiencies for businesses. We are encouraged by this approach and commend your ongoing commitment to making Washington a leader in recycling.

Looking ahead to 2026, we support complementary legislation, SB 5502/HB 1607. These counterpart bills would add a Recycling Refund program (also known as a Bottle Bill or Deposit Return System) for plastic, glass, and aluminum beverage containers to Washington EPR. Together with the Recycling Reform Act, SB 5502/HB 1607 would establish a comprehensive, high-performance EPR program, pairing curbside recycling with Recycling Refunds that incentivize consumers to recycle their bottles and cans.

Ten U.S. states already operate Recycling Refund programs, and the data is clear: they reduce beverage container litter by up to 84 percent and can achieve return rates over 90 percent (versus 34 percent national beverage container recycling rate ). Modernized Recycling Refund programs like Oregon’s—akin to what SB 5502/HB 1607 would enact in Washington—regularly achieve return rates in the 80-90 percent range.

Furthermore, as our businesses, which include various parts of the beverage industry value chain, strive for a system in which new beverage containers are made from recycled beverage containers, we must emphasize that the Recycling Reform Act alone will not enable beverage container circularity at scale. Curbside recycling results in unacceptable levels of contamination of the collected materials, significantly limiting their capacity to be used to make new food-grade bottles and cans. In contrast, a Recycling Refund program would deliver a reliable domestic supply of clean and high-quality materials that can be used to manufacture new beverage containers.

We urge your Administration and legislative partners to take the next bold step in Washington’s recycling leadership by supporting SB 5502/HB 1607. This legislation is essential to realizing the full promise of comprehensive EPR—pairing curbside recycling with a modernized Recycling Refund program. We stand ready to collaborate and lend our expertise to help make this vision a reality.

Sincerely,

Airbnb
American Distilled Spirits Alliance
Anchor Glass Container LLC
Arbor Crest Wine Cellars
Arconic Corporation
Ardagh Glass Packaging
Ardagh Metal Packaging S.A.
Association of Plastic Recyclers
Ball Corporation
Bold Reuse
Can Manufacturers Institute
Coalition for High Performance Recycling
Constellium
Container Recycling Institute
Copperworks Distilling Company
CROWN Holdings, Inc.
DeLille Cellars
Desert Wind Winery
Diageo North America
Distilled Spirits Council of the United States
Double Mountain Brewery and Cidery
Encora Enterprises, Inc.
ENVASES
Fortuity Cellars
Free Flow Wines
Gard Vintners
Glass Packaging Institute
Good To Go Cups
Heaven Hill Brands
International Bottled Water Association
Kaiser Aluminum
L’Ecole No 41 Winery
Mark Anthony Brands Inc.
Morso Bistro and Wine Market
Novelis
O-I Glass
Olipop
Open Water
Pernod Ricard
PPG Industries, Inc.
Precept Wine & Spirits
Primo Brands
Red Bull
Retrocycle
Revino
Revolusation
Rotie Cellars
r.World
Schilling Cider
Ste Michelle Wine Estates
The Aluminum Association
Thurston Wolfe Winery
Tri-Arrows Aluminum, Inc.
Washington Beer & Wine Distributors Association
Washington Hosts Collaborative Alliance
Washington Wine Institute
Wine Institute