Time To Update The Bottle Bill
This year, the Legislature is considering an update to our container deposit system, adding beverages like bottled water, sports drinks, and juice drinks. The bottle bill, passed 30 years ago, has been our most effective program to prevent litter and is responsible for recycling 35 billion containers in Massachusetts so far. Our law has become a model for other states and nations.
This is about producer responsibility: Those who create the waste should also help pay to clean it up. As a result, today we redeem or recycle an amazing 80 percent of beverage containers covered by the program. But there's a troubling loophole. For those bottles not covered, about 80 percent wind up as litter, trash, or in landfills. Updating the law will divert another 1.5 billion bottles from our landfills every year, dramatically reduce litter, and save up to $7 million annually for taxpayers through decreased cleanup costs for our cash-strapped cities and towns.
The bottle bill is also a jobs bill. The bottling industry argues that an update will cost jobs, when in fact the opposite is true. For instance, New York created more than 1,250 new jobs at redemption centers by updating its program. For every job lost in trash disposal, 8 to 10 are created in the recycling sector. According to the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), Massachusetts leads the nation with nearly 14,000 jobs in the recycling industry. Shouldn't we be creating more jobs by providing recycled materials for use in such industries as textiles, upholstery, carpeting, and polyester fleece rather than throwing those bottles, and jobs, away?
The bottler's idea of corporate responsibility includes taking credit for supporting programs like home access to curbside recycling, when, in fact, we as taxpayers fund those programs, not the bottling industry. Curbside recycling is great for beverages consumed at home, but does little for those consumed on the go.
The bottling industry has tried to strike fear into consumers, claiming "now is not the time" to burden struggling families with "a new tax," even as Coca-Cola posts record profits and a 4 percent price hike in the last quarter. No new tax is being proposed, merely a fully refundable deposit. Consumers who choose not to redeem are supporting recycling anyway, because that's where the extra nickels would go. In reality, beverage prices are more likely to increase as a result of corporate greed rather than updating the bottle bill. A 2011 DEP study confirmed that prices are actually higher in New Hampshire, which has no deposit.
Americans are increasingly tired of taking out the industry's trash, which is why 77 percent of the public supports updating the bill. Plastic bottles are essentially a petroleum-based product. And like the oil industry, the beverage industry posts record profits while expecting the handouts to continue. Quite simply, we as taxpayers will be forced to pick up the tab until we hold industry accountable. With so many local and national corporations like Target, Intel and Best Buy taking responsibility for products they sell, isn't it time the beverage industry stepped up too? Let's close the bottle bill loophole so we can decrease litter, increase recycling, create jobs, and save millions for our cities and towns.
James McCaffrey is director of the Massachusetts Sierra Club. He can be reached at James.McCaffrey@SierraClub.org.
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