Who gains from saving nature
Ledger 1 : 33 — For each dollar financing nature-based solutions in 2023, about $33 financed activities harmful to nature. (UNEP)
Cases / Plastic waste and recycling claims · United States · 1953

Oregon bottle bill (1971)

Nature's voice · report
No measurement of the harm done to me here is on record.
Did nature suffer? Not measured.
Not on record
  • The record does not name which of my species, waters, soils or forests were harmed.
What the record lacks: 2 none on record · 5 insufficient · 1 not measured · 1 disputed See the gaps

In 1971 Oregon passed a container deposit law at a time when a packaging-industry-founded group, Keep America Beautiful, promoted anti-litter messaging aimed at individuals. Many of the details come from sources that favour deposit laws and could not be checked against primary documents.

House 54–6, Senate 22–8Oregon legislative vote on the 1971 deposit law
Vote tally as recorded in the sources reviewed.

Status Law described as lasting in the sources reviewed; litter and return-rate figures unverified.

What?
A container deposit law passed in Oregon in 1971, alongside a packaging-industry-founded campaign that framed litter as an individual's behaviour.
Where?
Oregon, United States.
When?
KAB founded 1953; Oregon law 1971; Tennessee container tax 1981.
Who?
Gained
  • Packaging and beverage companies (American Can, Owens-Illinois, Coca-Cola, Dixie Cup) — Founded or later joined KAB; the sources reviewed describe KAB's anti-litter framing as replacing deposit laws in some states such as Tennessee.
Lost
None on record
Harmed
None on record
Why?
The sources reviewed describe KAB as formed in reaction to Vermont's 1953 deposit rule (Rogers) and as opposing deposit laws (Dunaway).
How?
A legislative deposit requirement versus an advertising campaign and, in Tennessee, a container tax.
6 of 6 questions answered from the record

What happened

The record, in order.

Keep America Beautiful (KAB) was founded in December 1953 by American Can, a can maker, and Owens-Illinois, a glass-bottle maker. Coca-Cola and Dixie Cup joined later; the founders did not announce their involvement. According to author Heather Rogers, KAB was formed in reaction to Vermont's ban, the same year, on non-deposit beer bottles. A deposit is a small charge added to a container's price and refunded when the container is returned.

KAB joined the Advertising Council in 1961. Its campaign in which an actor in Native American dress weeps at a polluted landscape went on air on Earth Day 1971 and won two Clio awards. The actor, Iron Eyes Cody, was of Italian descent. In 2023 KAB transferred the advertisement's copyright to the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI).

Historian Finis Dunaway wrote that KAB executives opposed deposit laws that would push manufacturers towards reusable containers and described their supporters as communists. The Audubon Society and the Sierra Club left KAB's advisory board over this. The sources reviewed record that the legislature passed Oregon's 1971 deposit law by 54–6 in the House and 22–8 in the Senate.

Tennessee chose a small container tax instead of a deposit in 1981, directing the proceeds to cleanup crews and Keep Tennessee Beautiful. The tobacco industry also ran cigarette-butt cleanup programmes with KAB in place of smoking restrictions.

  1. 1953KAB founded by American Can and Owens-Illinois (December); Vermont bans non-deposit beer bottles the same year (per Heather Rogers)
  2. 1961KAB joins the Advertising Council
  3. 1971Oregon deposit law passed; KAB advertisement goes on air on Earth Day
  4. 1981Tennessee adopts a container tax instead of a deposit
  5. 2023KAB transfers the advertisement's copyright to NCAI

What was said

Claims, in the words of those who made them.

Where accounts differ

Each party's account, side by side, with its source. The record does not settle these points; it shows them.

Was KAB's anti-litter campaign a substitute for deposit laws?
Researchers
Finis Dunaway (historian)

KAB executives opposed deposit laws and described their supporters as communists; Audubon and Sierra Club left KAB's advisory board as a result.

How it looked

What was shown, beside what was recorded.

Shown

  • Litter treated as an individual moral failing, with the person who litters labelled a 'litterbug'; the 1971 advertisement's slogan said that people start pollution and people can stop it (paraphrase).
    KAB campaign, as described in the sources reviewed

Recorded

  • KAB was founded by a can maker and a glass-bottle maker; Coca-Cola and Dixie Cup joined later and the founders did not announce their involvement.
  • Oregon's legislature passed the deposit law by 54–6 (House) and 22–8 (Senate).
  • Tennessee chose a container tax over a deposit in 1981; proceeds went to cleanup crews and Keep Tennessee Beautiful.
  • Audubon and Sierra Club left KAB's advisory board over its stance on deposit laws.

In court and with insurers

Every proceeding and every insurer decision on record.

Lawsuits and rulings

No court case on record. No court has ruled on this case.

Insurers

No insurer decision on record.

What nature saw

Outcomes measured on the ground, and nature's note.

Nature's report opens this page. Below: further outcomes measured on the ground.

Roadside litter share from beverage containers
About 40% to 6% by 1979
Reported, not independently verified; the figure comes from a source favouring deposit laws

What we don't know

Undisclosed, unproven, untried: recorded as data.

Nature

  • Not measured Harm to nature: The record holds no measurement of harm to nature.

Figures

  • Insufficient Container share of litter: From a source favouring deposit systems.

Accounts

  • Disputed Was KAB's anti-litter campaign a substitute for deposit laws?

Record

  • Insufficient Reported but not independently verified: that Oregon's law passed despite lobbying by bottlers and 7-Up and an anonymous offer of money.
  • Insufficient Reported but not independently verified: that beverage containers' share of roadside litter fell from about 40% to about 6% by 1979, and that return rates were 98% in Germany (2018) and 90% in Lithuania (2021); both figures come from a source that favours deposit systems.
  • Insufficient Reported but not independently verified: that industry supplied about 75% of the budget of SOLV, the cleanup group founded by Oregon's governor.
  • Insufficient Reported but not independently verified: that the Vermont law ended after four years because of the beer lobby, and that the advertisement was produced by the agency Marsteller Inc.
  • None on record The history of KAB and of bottle bills in the sources reviewed rests largely on organisations that favour deposit laws, and KAB's lobbying against state deposit laws rests largely on Dunaway's account; no primary document was reviewed.
  • None on record No KAB response to Dunaway's account is on record in the sources reviewed.

Did the harm stop?

The sources reviewed describe Oregon's law as lasting; the effect on litter is reported but unverified.

Who paid?

Under a deposit law, consumers pay through deposits and producers through collection systems, as described in the sources reviewed.

Sources

Voices on record: — Company or project— Government and regulators— Courts— Press and investigations— Communities and civil society— Researchers

Connected cases

Related matters, and cases linked to this one through the same organisations, with the role each played in both.
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