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January 19, 2007
Bottle bill
Sensible solution
REMEMBER 40 years ago when a kid who wanted some spare change could pick up a
few pop bottles, carry them to a grocery store and collect the deposit? Many
states are finding value in that kind of arrangement again, both for recycling
and litter control.
West Virginia has a good bottle bill in the works (SB136), but naysayers in
the recycling and soft drink industries have painted it as some sort of
anti-business tax.
Nevertheless, in addition to several environmental and religious groups, an
impressive coalition of pro-business minded entities have endorsed the bill,
including the West Virginia Farm Bureau and the State Grange; city councils in
Addison, Athens, Charleston, Fairmont, Huntington, Morgantown, St. Albans and
South Charleston; county commissions of Clay, Fayette, Hampshire, Harrison,
Jefferson, Mineral and Webster counties; and solid waste authorities in
Berkeley, Cabell, Calhoun, Doddridge, Harrison, Jefferson, Webster and Wood
counties. The Webster County Economic Development Authority thinks it is a good
idea, as does Webster Springs Main Street Inc.
The bill calls for a 10-cent deposit paid by the consumer on every beverage
container. Retailers would send that money to the state, and the state would
send it back to recycling redemption centers where the containers would be
returned.
West Virginia Citizen Action Group points out that beverage containers make
up at least 40 percent of the state’s litter. If every one of those bottles
represented a dime, lazy slobs might think twice before flinging them out their
car windows. States that have similar laws have seen big drops in beverage
container litter.
With 40 years of improvements in technology, carrying out the requirements of
such a law should be cleaner and easier than ever. For example, Maine residents
are trying a system called CLYNK, where each bottle is labeled with a bar code.
Consumers have an account, and when they redeem their bottles, the money is
directly deposited into their accounts.
Anyone who doesn’t want to spend time redeeming their bottles could donate
them to civic organizations that are always looking for constructive ways to
make money.
Critics of the bill trashed it pretty thoroughly during legislative interim
committee meetings. But it’s still early in the session. We hope the bottle bill
gets some traction soon. If that’s going to happen, lawmakers are going to have
to hear from a lot of constituents who want the state to clean up its act.
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