Webinar Recap: Maia Corbitt Discusses Recycling Refund Momentum in Texas

Texans for Clean Water President Maia Corbitt joined Heidi Sanborn, Executive Director of the National Stewardship Action Council (NSAC), for a webinar highlighting the progress Texas has made toward enacting a modern recycling refund system. The conversation provided an insightful overview of House Bill 2048, the bipartisan support it gained, and why Texas is uniquely positioned to lead the next wave of meaningful waste reduction policy.

Maia opened the discussion by laying out the scale of the problem: Texas has one of the lowest recycling rates in the nation and leads the country in aluminum cans wasted. About 85% of the materials littered in Texas could otherwise be recycled—mostly PET plastic bottles and aluminum beverage cans. As a result, taxpayers are footing the bill for costly cleanup efforts and a missed opportunity to recover valuable materials that could be reused in domestic manufacturing.

Texans for Clean Water, she explained, is a coalition of business leaders and philanthropists who are tired of seeing Texas’s waterways and landscapes trashed. Their goal isn’t just to clean up litter—it’s to fundamentally change the way Texas handles beverage containers. That’s where House Bill 2048 came in.

HB 2048 proposed a producer-led, market-based solution to get 75% of beverage containers back into the stream of commerce. Under the bill, beverage producers would form a nonprofit to design and operate a recovery program, without a state-mandated deposit amount. This flexibility, Maia noted, was key to gaining support from industry groups like the Aluminum Association, the Association of Plastic Recyclers, the Glass Packaging Institute, Red Bull, and the International Bottled Water Association.

The bill also drew bipartisan political support. It was sponsored by Rep. John Lujan (R-San Antonio) and Sen. Nathan Johnson (D-Dallas), with a dozen other lawmakers signing on. It passed unanimously out of the House Environmental Regulation Committee and made it to the House floor calendar—a first for any beverage container refund legislation in Texas.

So why didn’t it pass? Simply put, the clock ran out. Texas’s legislature only meets for 140 days every other year, and with procedural delays at the beginning of session, time was in short supply. But the momentum was undeniable, and key lawmakers have already expressed interest in returning to the issue in the next session.

During the webinar, Maia also emphasized that HB 2048 was deliberately kept simple. The legislation left room for innovation while centering on two key principles: financial incentives for consumers and convenient collection systems, especially for materials discarded away from home. She pointed out that while EPR (Extended Producer Responsibility) programs have gained traction nationally for curbside recycling, HB 2048 was designed to complement those efforts by targeting the kind of litter most often found on roadsides and in waterways.

Looking ahead, Maia outlined our plans to build on this progress during the interim. Texans for Clean Water hopes to bring lawmakers and stakeholders to visit successful programs in other regions—such as Oregon’s industry-run bottle return system and Australia’s national container deposit network. These programs have not only reduced litter (by as much as 40% in Australia’s case) but have also helped stabilize recycling markets and supply chains.

Maia also highlighted the economic case for recycling refunds. Texas loses hundreds of millions of dollars annually in scrap value, while cities and state agencies like TxDOT spend tens of millions more on litter abatement. Recycling refunds can reduce those costs while feeding domestic manufacturers with clean, high-quality materials—a win-win.

Perhaps most importantly, Maia reminded attendees that the bill wasn’t about mandates. It was about opportunity. By giving industry the reins and setting a clear performance target, HB 2048 created space for innovation and accountability. That message—personal responsibility, paired with practical policy—is resonating.

As Maia put it, this is an economic solution to an environmental challenge—and Texas has what it takes to lead the way.