Why We Support Expanded Bottle Redemption Bill

By Amy Galblum

Enacted in 1983, the current Massachusetts bottle bill has provided an economic incentive of 5 cents per bottle for consumers to return used beverage containers; it has had impressive results important to all of us.

Currently, 80% of redeemable bottles are recycled in Massachusetts. After more than two decades, the effectiveness of a bottle deposit has been proven. In a meeting with GreeningRozzie Board members last week, Jim Hunt, Mayor Thomas Menino’s chief of Environmental and Energy Services, noted that, “The current bottle bill is the most successful recycling program known to mankind.”

The success of the current bottle bill can be measured in keeping our streets, beaches and parks clean. However, they are not clean enough.

The 1983 “Beverage Container Recovery Law” covers only beer, malt, carbonated soft drinks, and mineral water. In the last decades there has been a noticeable increase in the sale of bottled water, sports drinks, iced teas, coffees, and flavored water. Unfortunately, only 20% of these non-redeemable bottles are recycled, even with the ubiquity of curbside recycling, single stream bins (large household mixed recycling), and increased public awareness. We can do better, and we can do it with the expanded bottle redemption bill now before the state Legislature.

Industry representatives and lobbyists from beverage suppliers and grocery stores are against the expanded bottle bill and are once again poised to derail any additions to the list of redeemable bottled drinks.

They have threatened us with the specter of higher prices even though surveys have shown that prices are not higher in New England states with bottle deposits than they are in states without bottle deposits. It is also clear that voluntary recycling supported by industry voices is no match for a bottle redemption fee. The expanded bottle bill has been characterized as a tax, but a bottle deposit is not a tax as it is redeemable and will actually save tax money now set aside for trash collection. There are already systems in place in grocery stores and redemption centers for recycling and deposit returns that could be expanded to include more bottles.

An expanded bottle bill is in the interest of all Boston residents. There are too many environmental advantages to turn it down.

Currently, more than 1 billion non-carbonated containers end up as litter, buried in landfills or burned in incinerators each year in the Commonwealth.

According to Kenneth Kimmel, Mass Department of Environmental Protection commissioner, an estimated 750 million of those bottles would be diverted from the solid waste stream under an updated law.

A bottle redemption cost would be the best and most cost effective litter prevention measure possible. The expanded bottle bill would save money for the city of Boston – an estimated $500,000 per year in costs for glass and plastics that would otherwise be tossed into the trash.

Would the industry like to contribute that amount to the city of Boston to cover the costs they now incur?

The GreeningRozzie board supports bills intended to expand the bottle law to include other drinks and recommends that residents and business owners in Roslindale also back this initiative.

This article first appeared in the Roslindale Transcript.