In the summer of 2018, Oregon started a refillable bottle program, BottleDrop, with beverage makers of beer, cider, and wine. The bottles are made near Portland, using recycled glass, and can be refilled up to 25 times. They carry a 10-cent deposit and are returned to recycling centers just like other glass bottles; a bar code helps them get sorted out. Eight companies are already onboard, and Joel Schoening, the community relations manager for the Oregon Beverage Recycling Cooperative, says, “We’ve had interest from cold press coffee makers, kombucha makers, craft soda companies, and more. One way we expect this to grow in the near future is through out of state beverage makers putting their beverages in BottleDrop Refillables for the Oregon market.” By the end of 2019, about 1 million bottles will be in rotation, Schoening says. “What’s special about this program is that it has the potential to reduce the emissions associated with a craft beverage by about 90 percent.” Currently, less than 0.1 percent of beverage containers in America are refillable, compared with 45 percent in Canada. O‘ahu-based Sky Kombucha is ahead of the curve, giving customers 50 cents back on their bottles, which they sanitize and reuse. Every month, this saves the use and disposal of thousands of bottles.