Letter to the Editor

Deposit Isn't A Tax

The executive director of the Connecticut Food Association writes that "an expanded bottle bill is ridiculously expensive," but "Connecticut needs to clean up its litter problem" [letter, April 30, "Expand Recycling, Not Bottle Bill"].

An expanded bottle bill would help immediately with the litter problem, just as the current law has. But it needs to be much stronger, with a 10-cent deposit on all cans and plastic bottles of everything except medications and foods. California collects 10 cents. Maine collects 5 cents on water bottles and the like.

The bottle deposit is not a tax. The purchaser can redeem the containers and recover the deposit.

The advantages of a 10-cent deposit include a greater incentive to recycle and a doubling of the handling charge that mom-and-pop stores, as well as other vendors, collect. It also increases substantially the income of those who collect and redeem the discards of others.

There will always be litter. Deliberate littering, like vandalism and graffiti, are the actions of people who feel unempowered. "Better enforcement" is no answer because it doesn't work. A mandated incentive — the expanded bottle bill — would.

Robert C. Hetzel
Manchester