Are you green enough?

My son and I are doing a bottle drive to raise money for a local family. This got me thinking about how bottle collections and recycling campaigns impact our environment. So I did some research and found the info listed below on Wikipedia re: container-deposit legislation.

I was stunned to learn how few states in the US follow this "green" legislation. Only 11 out of 50, which amounts to a mere 22%! I wonder what the other 39 states look like? Their landfills must be monumental. I am so glad we live in a "green" state (aptly nicknamed the "Green Mountain" State).

Here are just a few points I found fascinating, so I thought I'd bring them more to the forefront. But before you read this, I urge you to please recycle, reduce & reuse.

US states with container deposits:
California
Connecticut
Delaware
Hawaii
Iowa
Maine
Massachusetts
Michigan
New York
Oregon
Vermont

Canada
Many provinces have deposit refunds in place for alcoholic & non-alcoholic beverage containers. Deposits range from 5 to 40 cents per unit.

Ontario's system of deposit refund for beer bottles has a near 100% return rate. In 1997 the legislation added a refund for wine & spirits as well.

Sweden
In Sweden, there are deposit values on nearly all consumption-ready containers. The return rate for aluminum and PET containers is 86%; for the two types of bottles the rate is 99% and 90% respectively.

Norway
The selling of aluminum beverage cans in Norway was forbidden up until the end of the 20th century. Today Norway has various container deposits. In 2005, 93% of all recyclable bottles and 80% of the drink cans were returned and recycled. This amounted to approximately 243 million containers and 280 million NOK in deposits.