October 20, 2007
Woman spreading word on bottle bill
Turner Hutchens
One woman is pedaling around the state to get the word out about a bill to clean up Tennessee's roads.
Marge Davis will set off at 9 a.m. Saturday from Civic Plaza in downtown Murfreesboro on the second leg of her 800-mile bicycle ride across the state to spread the word about Pride of Place (POP), a comprehensive litter and recycling plan made possible by a 5-cent deposit on glass, plastic and aluminum beverage containers.
On the first leg of her trip Davis rode from Nashville to Memphis. Now she will be heading to Bristol, via Cleveland, Athens, Loudon, Knoxville and Morristown, Greeneville and Johnson City.
Davis said once a deposit plan is implemented, 85 percent of the 4.2 billion beverage containers used annually in Tennessee would likely be recycled, up from the current level of about 10 percent.
"There's value in this scrap, and that's really what this bill is about," Davis said. "It's making sure that we don't throw away 90 percent of aluminum, plastic and glass."
She said the bill would decrease both litter along roadways and the amount of garbage going into the state's landfills.
"We're talking over 200 million tons annually," she said. "Pretty much every beverage (container) you would buy in the store — not just beer and soda, but all of them."
Legislation creating a container deposit was introduced last spring by state Sen. Doug Jackson of Dickson and Rep. Mike Turner of Old Hickory. Twelve additional co-sponsors from both parties have since signed on.
Davis said the bill has been crafted to avoid many of the objections raised over previous bottle bills in the state — namely objections from retailers that they would be forced to handle bottles and from bottling companies that they would be forced to transport and sort the bottles.
The bill would create independent drop-off centers for bottles and cans and independent recycling companies would transport the materials once collected.
Eleven states have long used container deposits as an incentive to recycle, including Iowa, Maine, Vermont, Oregon and Michigan.
http://dnj.midsouthnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071020/NEWS01/710200305/1002
