February 7, 2008
Senators sip on idea of bottle deposit bill
By James Carlson
Kansas could recycle up to 60 percent of the two billion beverage containers sold each year under a proposal to offer a deposit on cans and bottles.
The bill, heard in the Senate Natural Resources Committee, would allow for a five-cent deposit on each bottle or can and could result in 600 million containers being recycled each year, according to Bill Bider, the director of waste management with the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.
But some retailers said the measure would make it difficult to store all the containers brought in, and other opponents questioned the environmental impact of the bill.
Eleven states currently have drink container deposit laws. Distributors would charge the retailers five cents per container, which the retailer would then add to the cost of each beverage.
Customers could then bring the can or bottle back in for to receive back the deposit. The bill include cans and glass and plastic bottles containing alcohol and soda, but it does not include water bottles.
Bider said if enacted, the law would cost $300,000 to implement and an additional $600,000 annually to run the program.
Supporters said the bill would conserve valuable landfill space.
The proposal would keep containers from "littering our country roadsides and urban landscapes," said Ron Klataske, executive director of the Audubon of Kansas.
But retailers said the space issues with storing redeemed containers could be overwhelming.
"(Our stores) simply don't have the room to be the collector of cans and bottles being returned by consumers," said Bob Alderson, spokesman for Casey's General Stores.
James Carlson can be reached at (785) 233-7470 or james.carlson@cjonline.com.
