Letter to the Editor

Grocers Petition Untrue

Your recent article on the anti-bottle bill petitions now circulating in Iowa shows once again how beverage and grocery industry opposition to deposits knows no limits. Among the more outlandish - and unsubstantitated - claims they have floated include: that germs hiding in bottles and cans can induce women to miscarry, that the prevention of roadside bottle and can litter masks teenage alcoholism and drunk driving, that deposits will deprive women and children receiving WIC benefits of needed food, and that hypodermic needles stashed in containers expose recyclers to HIV and other diseases.

None of these claims - intended to scare the public into opposing bottle bills - has a basis in reality. The truth is, in poll after poll across the United States, the public approves of container deposit programs as a way to control litter, keep garbage out of landfills, and conserve precious natural resources.

The industry's push for "comprehensive" (ie. curbside) recycling programs to replace bottle bills is really a thinly-veiled attempt to shift the cost for pickup and handling of recyclables away from the producers and consumers of these beverages back onto the local taxpayer.

The so-called choice between curbside programs and deposit systems is a false one. The two systems are not mutually exclusive; they are complementary. Society is diverse, as are our consumer habits; we need a variety of recycling systems operating concurrently in order to recover all the beverage containers - and other materials - we discard.

What curbside programs do not address is the skyrocketing amount of "away-from-home" beverage consumption: single-serving sodas, iced teas, sports drinks and bottled water people increasingly buy at convenience stores or vending machines and drink right away: in their cars, at the mall, office, etc. Last year, Americans landfilled, incinerated or littered 97 billion bottles and cans, 34 billion more than were wasted in 1990. Much of this increase in wasting is a direct result of away-from-home consumption.

Most people will not bring these containers back home to their curbside bins, but they will save them if they can get a nickel or a dime back. The numbers prove it: in the 10 U.S. states with deposit legislation, beverage containers are recycled at an average rate of 72%; the recovery rate is only 28% in non-deposit states.

Deposit programs are a proven financial incentive to keep containers off our roads, parks and beaches. They not only prevent litter but conserve valuable energy and raw materials, thus reducing the annual production of millions of tons of air and water pollution, toxic mining wastes and industrial solid wastes, greenhouse gas emissions, etc.

We can reverse the present wasting trend and protect our environment by encouraging more - not fewer - bottle bills across the country.

Jennifer Gitlitz
Senior Research Associate
Container Recycling Institute
Arlington, VA