Cut trash, earn cash: DC leaders introduce bill to reduce litter, increase recycling
DC leaders introduce bill to reduce litter, increase recycling
D.C. leaders are introducing a bill aimed at reducing litter and improving recycling rates. Referred to as the "bottle bill", the Recycling Refund and Litter Reduction Amendment Act of 2025 was introduced by Ward 1 councilmember Brianne Nadeau. It has the support of 10 other councilmembers on Thursday.
WASHINGTON - D.C. leaders are introducing a bill aimed at reducing litter and improving recycling rates.
Referred to as the "bottle bill", the Recycling Refund and Litter Reduction Amendment Act of 2025 was introduced by Ward 1 councilmember Brianne Nadeau. It has the support of 10 other councilmembers on Thursday.
Under the proposal, consumers pay a 10-cent deposit on beverage bottles and cans at the store. Once they return their empty bottles to the store, they get their 10 cents back.
"It’s going to be a great opportunity for residents. I think they’ll see pretty quickly that it’s a way to earn money. Word gets out pretty fast when something becomes valuable and redeemable," Councilmember Nadeau said Thursday.
According to Nadeau, the bill would also set up a non-profit stewardship organization to handle the logistics of sorting the bottles and sending them to a recycling facility. Retailers get a handling fee for collecting the bottles, while small retailers and restaurants, bars, and hotels would be exempt.
Ten other states already have programs like this in place. According to D.C. leaders, in Michigan, the return rate for bottles is 73%. In Maine, the return rate 77%. In five of the six states with at least a 10-cent deposit, the redemption rate is over 50%.
In D.C., plastic bottles alone account for 60% of the weight of all trash retrieved from the Anacostia River, according to Trey Sherard with Anacostia Riverkeeper.
"For over a decade, Anacostia Riverkeeper has been doing volunteer clean-ups and unfortunately, it’s not had to find work," Sherard said. "We estimate from the volunteer cleanups approximately 17,000 to 25,000 thousand plastic bottles a year. The only dip we’ve seen in those numbers was 2020 when people were not out of their homes, and it was a lot harder to litter something on the ground."
Sherard estimates more than a quarter million plastic bottles have been picked up in trash traps and volunteer cleanups in D.C. over the past decade.
"That number is not going down, it’s going up as more and more things become plastic," he said.
Carney Clegg has worked in D.C. for about 20 years and said he would be onboard with a program like this.
"When I first came here, the place was really…a lot of plastic bottles and stuff," Clegg said. "Now, it seems like they do a good job of cleaning up."
If passed, D.C. would be the first jurisdiction in more than 20 years to implement a program like this. A similar bill has also been introduced in the Maryland legislature.