Legislature hears update
proposals on Halloween.
With growing awareness of
the trash, waste, and public health problems that come from throwaway
containers, the Legislature is scheduled to consider updating the Bottle Law at
10:30am on Wednesday, October 31.
MASSPIRG, the Sierra Club,
Mass Recycle, and the City of BostonOregon
– as well as other environmental groups, container redemption centers, and
cities and towns, are preparing to show up in force and testify in support of
the long-needed Bottle Bill Update. Although this bill is similar to the one
introduced in the previous legislative session, recent media attention on water
bottle waste in particular has increased the pressure on the legislature to
pass an update on the deposit law to capture water and other plastic containers
that now end up in the trash. In addition, the legislature added water bottles to
their law in June.
The proposed update would
expand the container deposit system to include “new age” drinks such as
non-carbonated beverages, water, iced tea, juice, and sports drinks such as
“Gatorade. It would add approximately
$12 million to state revenue via projected unclaimed deposits – plus
even more by alleviating financial pressure on cities and towns by lowering
their trash and litter collection costs. .
“Right now, taxpayers are
footing the bill to deal with these non-carbonated containers- whether through
curbside collection or litter clean-up,” said Rep. Douglas Petersen
(D-Marblehead), sponsor of the primary bill. “Including them in the
Commonwealth's bottle bill makes good fiscal and environmental sense.”
Massachusetts's lawmakers are particularly interested in the
bill's budgetary implications. Under one of the proposals, the Clean
Environment Fund, a key part of the Bottle Law that was eliminated by Governor
Romney, would be restored. A projected
$40 million in unclaimed deposits would be made available to once again
help with environmental efforts, including maintaining parks, preventing
litter, and bolstering recycling programs.
While virtually non-existent
in 1983 when the law was enacted, non-carbonated beverages now account for
about a third of the total beverage market in Massachusetts. According to Rep. Alice Wolf
(D-Cambridge), a cosponsor of the update, “Many of these beverages are sold in
single-serve containers and are consumed away from home, so they are less
likely to end up in a curbside bin and more likely to be littered.”
A state report of a random
sample of litter collected by volunteers at a Charles
River cleanup contained a ratio of almost 5 to 1 non-returnable
containers to returnable (deposit) containers, and similar results have been
found throughout the state. Since the ratio of deposit to non-deposit
containers is about 2-to-1, it is over twelve times more likely that a
non-deposit container will end up littering our waterways than will a deposit
container.
"The bottle bill is
popular with consumers," said Rep. Marty Walz (D-Boston) a sponsor of one
of the key bills being proposed.
"Improving it by adding the other on-the-go beverages will help
keep our cities and parks clean."
“It's high time to update
the bottle bill,” said Janet Domenitz, Executive Director of Massachusetts
Public Interest Research Group (MASSPIRG). “MASSPIRG has mounted numerous
campaigns to expand the deposit law, but has been outgunned by the beverage and
retail industry lobbies time and again. We are optimistic that with the recent
public attention on water bottle waste, we can bring the bottle bill up to date
this time.”
Other proposed changes to
the Massachusetts
beverage container deposit law include raising the handling fee that redemption
centers and retailers receive as compensation for their efforts to process the
returned containers. “We have not had a raise in over 17 years,” said Mike
Ruggeri of Ruggeri’s Redemption Center in Greenfield. “We can’t name another industry that’s been
barred from keeping up with the increasing costs like gasoline and labor.”
James McCaffrey, Director of
the Massachusetts Sierra Club said the updated bill promotes corporate
responsibility. “This is an issue of making polluters pay for the mess they’ve
created. The bottlers and supermarkets are dumping increasing amount of
single-serving plastic bottles into our environment – and making us pay the
bill for their collection and clean-up. The deposit system places the burden
squarely on them, where it should be. It’s an issue of fairness.”
If the expansion bill is
approved by the legislature and signed by the governor, Massachusetts would become the fifth state
with an updated bottle bill. Maine, California, Oregon and HawaiiNew York and Connecticut
are pursuing similar updates. already require
deposits on non-carbonated beverages. Activists and policymakers in
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