Container and Packaging Recycling Update - Volume XV No. 1 - Spring 2007
State Updates
Maryland: Bottle bill sought
to reduce
growing litter problem
ANNAPOLIS — A bill to increase recycling and reduce litter (HB 879) was introduced in the House in February 2007 and a public hearing before the Environmental Matters Committee took place a month later. The bill did not get a favorable vote in committee, but the bill’s chief sponsor, Del. Peter Hammen (D-Baltimore), has vowed to continue to work for passage of the legislation. Many of the 17 co-sponsors, particularly Del. Schuler ( D-Baltimore County), are also committed to container deposit legislation as a means of reducing beverage container litter and increasing recovery of containers for recycling.
Lead groups in a coalition supporting the bill were Citizens Using Resources Better (CURB) and the Baltimore Harbor Watershed Association (BHWA). Many other organizations and local governments also endorsed
HB 839, including the League of Conservation Voters, Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Environment Maryland, Baltimore City Council, Greenbelt City Council, and others.
Litter is a growing problem in Maryland, particularly in the state’s waterways. Phil Lee, Secretary of BHWA, showed some startling pictures of thousands of bottles floating in the Baltimore Harbor as part of his testimony before the Environmental Matters Committee. Pictures of the Harbor and the trash interceptor installed last year can be found at www.container-recycling.org/general/interceptor.htm
Jennifer Will, Citizens Using
Resources Better,
mdbottlebill@gmail.com
Arkansas: Farm Bureau, County Judges
support Rep. Roebuck’s bottle bill
LITTLE ROCK — The "Beverage Container Litter Reduction Act" (HB 2771) was introduced in the 2007 legislative session by Rep. Johnnie Roebuck (D-Arkadelphia.) Although she succeeded in getting over 20 co-sponsors of the bill in the Arkansas House as well as a number of co-sponsors in the Senate, the bill died in the House Rules Committee.
The opposition was led by the Arkansas Beverage Association, the Arkansas Beer Wholesalers, the Arkansas Retailers and Wholesalers Association, and the Arkansas Recyclers Association. Although the beverage and retail opposition to the bottle bill was to be expected, the recyclers’ opposition was new and unexpected. Apparently they believed the new system of collection for aluminum beverage containers would somehow threaten their near monopoly on aluminum recycling in the state.
Supporters of the bill, although disappointed in the outcome in 2007, were buoyed by the endorsement by the Association of Counties, County Judges Association, Farm Bureau, and the Department of Highways, among others, that lent their names and support to the bill.
At the grassroots level, almost 200 students at the Episcopal Collegiate School held a rally, and students Briana Leniear and Hannah Remmel spoke in support of the bill at Rep. Roebuck’s press conference at the State Capitol building. Two other students, Claire Jones, Lauren-Blair O’Brien and Anne Elizabeth Snowden testified before the Rules Committee.
Supporters will be working diligently over the next two years to educate voters, interest groups, and lawmakers on the benefits of this legislation.
Dr. Suzanne Wilmoth is Science
Department Chair at Episcopal
Collegiate School,
swilmoth@episcopalcollegiate.org
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