Letter to the Editor

Invest in returns

Now that the recession is in its initial stages, I have a modest proposal to help spur employment in Florida. There should be a 10 cent deposit required on every beverage container purchased. This includes glass, plastic, aluminum or steel.

As an incentive/reward to the wholesalers or retailers for collecting the deposits and forwarding them to the state, they should not be required to take the actual containers back. Instead, the state of Florida should establish numerous redemption centers throughout the state. The money that the state will net because of the deposits on unreturned containers, plus the money received from scrap dealers when the containers are recycled, should be sufficient to pay for this program.

The benefits for this idea will be many. Our streets and beaches will be free of container litter. Employment will be provided to thousands of unemployed people who will work at these redemption centers. Unemployed people will have a large financial incentive to pick up containers wherever they are littering our environment and return them for the deposit. And hundreds of thousands of tons of containers (raw materials) will thus be recycled.

John Connolly, St. Petersburg

http://www.tampabay.com/opinion/letters/article939857.ece