April 14, 2008
The benefits of expanding the 'bottle bill'
Legislation to expand the state's "bottle bill" could have beneficial impacts beyond just helping clean up the landscape.
The measure would give a boost to operators of redemption centers for the recyclables as well as to charitable groups such as Scouts and Boys & Girls Clubs that often undertake massive bottle and can collections.
The contentious legislation - it's vehemently opposed by beverage distributors and supermarket associations - would expand the beverage container redemption law to include containers for water and other non-carbonated, non-alcoholic, non-dairy drinks. The bill last week was referred by the Senate to the Committee on Planning and Development.
In addition to helping to clean up litter, the bill also offers an upside by increasing the handling fee that distributors pay redemption centers and retailers such as supermarkets for returned containers, from 1.5 cents for beer bottles and 2 cents for a soda can or bottle to 3 cents for all returnable containers. The last increase was in 1986.
There are currently 14 redemption centers in the state that would benefit not only from the higher handling fee but an expected increase in the volume of returnables brought in by consumers.
That's also the benefit for organizations, mostly young people's, who organize large-scale returnable container drives to raise funds. They would have plenty more containers to gather if the law is expanded.
With consumer tastes evolving to beverages such as bottled water and athletic drinks not covered by the current law, state lawmakers also can fortify state efforts for a cleaner environment by approving expansion of the law.
http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/opinion/ci_8915865
