Editorial
Why penalize stores?
No, I’m not trying to destroy the environment; I’m against penalizing stores just because they sell a legal product that people seem to want. This rejoinder is prompted by — what else? — part of the digital conversation some of you have had under Wednesday’s editorial. In that piece I was making a point against burdening stores with having to deal with even more empty drink containers, which would be the result of the Bottle Bill expansion passed by the state Senate this week.
Below that editorial on democratherald.com, the conversation, in part, went like this:
Kevin started it: “I grew up in Massachusetts where there is a functioning Bottle Bill, but you don’t have to take the bottles back to the grocery store. They have redemption centers where you can bring all of your bottles and cans, no matter where they came from, and get your $0.05 per container, no limit. It’s a system that is easy, convenient for all, and it works. Perhaps Oregon should look into that model instead of sticking us with long lines in front of automated machines that are broken most of the time.”
That brought a response from “Part of Their Business, Their Responsibility:” “Hey, they’re making money selling this stuff. Why shouldn’t they take some responsibility for the mess it causes? If the Bottle Bill is really too difficult, the stores will behave like any rational economic actor — and stop selling beverages in the bottles ... . After a while, I have to wonder if Hasso has an agenda to actively destroy the environment, since he is so against every single action that might help.”
See my reply above.
“Bottled Water Should Be Banned!” had this to say: “Bottled water is evil. With the great investment Albany just made for clean, tasty water, it is ridiculous to even be selling bottled water. So what is better about bottled water — the traffic and fumes from the trucks, or the fact it’s been sealed in plastic for weeks? It certainly hasn’t been proven cleaner. In many cases they just take municipal water from one town and truck it into another. ... And yes — there’s a lot of plastic landing in the ditch.”
EDS chimed in: “To Part of Their Business, Their Responsibility: There you liberals go again, try to run a decent business out of town. Get to the real core of the problem. It is those people that throw the trash including the plastic water bottles out the windows and into the ditches. That is who did it, so punish ... them — not the entity that legally produced the product.”
And John concluded: “If you look at the rest of the world, they are taking the approach to make the manufacturers and sellers responsible for the packaging they create and profit from. This will cause them to use more recyclable packages. ... Any way you look at it, a handling fee is needed whether it is for the retailer or a redemption center. All other bottle bills accept Michigan have a handling fee.”
Redemption centers; forcing manufacturers to take back what they sold; handling fees — all interesting ideas. And as for why buy bottled water? The Albany system does provide water of excellent quality, but some places it goes through plumbing that may be half a century hold and then comes out brown. That’s why (hh).
http://www.dhonline.com/articles/2007/04/28/news/opinion/2edi01_bottles.txt
