December 15, 2009
Opinion
A Christmas gift for Earth and ourselves: An expanded Bottle Bill
'Tis the season to show we care.
We donate clothes, toys and spare change out of love for our fellow man. But on our list of good deeds, one charity still goes wanting.
The Earth may not have a Christmas list or even expect gifts or recognition at this time of year — especially when most local residents are cursing the cold or the snow — but it is time we all chipped in and got her a gift. Luckily, I already have something in mind.
The Beverage Container Recovery Law has become dated and needs an overhaul. Enacted in Massachusetts in 1983, the "Bottle Bill" placed a 5-cent deposit on each canned beverage and glass bottle. According to the Sierra Club, it is the most successful recycling and litter prevention program in the state.
But while this program started off performing wonders, it has grown into a listless 26-year-old who no longer reaches his potential.
The old Bottle Bill covered only cans and bottles containing soda or beer. Today the market is flooded with canned energy drinks, juice and iced tea that come in larger or smaller-than-average sizes and therefore do not fit the criteria to have a deposit on them. Plastic water bottles also rarely meet the Bottle Bill's criteria.
So the most popular new brands on the market, which also take up more than half the space in the convenience store cold-beverage section, don't require a deposit.
Why is this important? Bottlebill.org claims that in Massachusetts, containers with a deposit on them are recycled 68.6 percent of the time. On the other hand, MSNBC reported in 2005 that only 12 percent of plastic bottles with no deposit reach a recycling center.
That's a huge difference, especially given the popularity of bottled water today. Not only has bottled water reached rock-star status among beverages sold, but it is also consumed in places where recycling is not always an option. The gym or park only has trash bins, and it is just easier to toss the water bottles there than to bring them home and recycle them yourself. If the bottles have a deposit on them, then the inclination to return them would become even greater.
If a deposit is put on each beverage container, the whole recyclable field should plateau at about a 68 percent recycling rate. It goes without saying that the trickle-down effect of this would include decreased landfill use, decreased litter and an increase in saved energy.
According to the Sierra Club, most beverage containers that are not covered by the old Bottle Bill are made of a substance that is 99 percent petroleum. Only about 20 percent of these containers are recycled, and across the United States in 2002, 3.2 billion pounds of these containers were dumped into landfills. Recycling those dumped containers would have saved 6.2 million barrels of oil.
It would seem a bill to expand the Beverage Container Recovery Law should be a slam dunk. The only opposition to the bill thus far has been from the beverage distribution companies, which would have to pay a higher fee — $0.016 (less than 2 cents) per container.
Helping the Earth feels great, but it sure would feel better if there was something extra in it for us. That is why the deposit on each container should be raised to 25 cents, and not just on beverages, but all recyclable containers, including canned foods, coffee cans, jars of sauce and condiments, and baby food.
Why? Returning 50 cans nets the recycler only $2.50. If there's no room to store returnable containers and some cans need to be thrown out, it is not a major loss.
With the deposit at a quarter, those same 50 cans would be worth $12.50. That is easily worth a trip to the recycling center.
Who knows how much higher the recycling rate would climb if the consumer had just a little more to lose?
As it stands now, the deposits that remain uncollected go to the state and, according to the Sierra Club, amounted to more than $37 million last year. This extra money should be spent building more recycling centers, creating new state jobs in both building and staffing those centers to meet the swelling demand if the Bottle Bill is expanded.
Even though the proposed bill is making headway, this is only the first step toward achieving a system that fully reuses the materials that make consumption such a modern luxury. How much longer will it be before the 5-cent deposit is obsolete and the recycling rate begins to drop due to consumer indifference?
So this Christmas let us remember the one who has been there for us since we first appeared on her, has given us all the tools we needed to succeed, and has never asked for anything in return. Let Massachusetts give a gift that she will remember forever, will make it look better heading into next year.
Let's rejoice when the new Bottle Bill is finally passed. Raise a toast in a recyclable bottle or can to the Earth, and put that nickel toward your New Year's festivities.
¢¢¢
Matthew Donato is a Salem resident currently attending Salem State College. He has been published in the Salem State Log and Red Skies magazine.
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