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March 15, 2007
W.Va.'s filthy hills do need a bottle bill
A recent Daily Mail editorial quoted Kevin Dietly, who said the bottle bill
proposed in West Virginia would be ineffective.
However, the bill was modeled after laws in other states that work. Also, the
West Virginia bill had been reworked to accommodate all of the objections that
had been presented in the last five years.
It should be noted that Dietly, in a presentation before the Interbev
Conference a few years back, said of Maine's bottle bill:
"Cost to consumers is insignificant. Prices were not affected. Sales were not
affected. Cottage industries have grown up with over 350 redemption centers in
Maine. The bottle bill, originally passed for litter prevention, enjoys a strong
measure of public support."
Having read Dietly's contradictory statements, it's hard to know what to
believe.
Members of Friends of the Lower Greenbrier River have been bending over
picking up trash for more than 15 years. We know that by the time we are done
with the cleanup, more beverage bottles will appear behind us. We know our
population needs to be reeducated.
Within the weeks to come, that road will look as if no one did a cleanup.
The bottle bill introduced in this session works well in 11 other states. The
statements printed in this paper reflect the corporate wording used to suppress
this legislation.
The West Virginia Citizen Action Group has been working on the flaws for five
years to get a bottle bill passed, with lying politicians that tell you they
will vote for it, but then will not.
There is a growing movement to temporarily withhold our Adopt-a-Highway
services until the governor and the Legislature pass a bottle bill.
No matter what the outcome, these beverage corporations will profit. The
argument that border city residents will travel to another state is bogus. Local
convenience stores have been doing just fine charging more over discounted large
food stores.
Look at the cost of gas, and the deposit is only 10 cents.
When the governor and Legislature take responsible actions for the sake of
the people who continuously pick up the nastiest beverage bottles (50 percent of
what we gather), we will resume our voluntary chores of keeping West Virginia
clean again.
Filthy hills need bottle bills.
Mark Blumenstein
Alderson |
