God gave us this beautiful land of ours and we should do everything within our power to protect and preserve it. You all have seen the heavily littered roadsides and probably wondered why they don't do something about it.
The facts are: we have been trying to do something about it. The "Stop It litter" campaign has appeared in TV, radio, newspaper and magazine ads, bumper stickers, handout brochures, and many other medias. TDOT is spending $5-6 million per year picking up trash along state roadways, The counties are spending $4.5-6.5 million per year in litter grant funds mostly having inmates pick up litter along county roadways. The cities are spending millions of dollars per year to pick up litter on their streets, TDOT has an adopt a highway program, Keep America Beautiful sponsors annual and semi-annual city and county cleanups each year. Some municipalities require their troubled youths to pick up litter almost weekly and have their maintenance crews pick up litter prior to mowing, state law requires DUI offenders to pick up litter for 24 hours, the Tennessee State Patrol has eight litter officers, and there are many individual concerned citizens who are out picking up litter as they get their daily exercise.
The Tennessee Litter Law was changed last July to include as much as 80 hours of litter pick up for some offenders and "the presumption of guilt for identification found in litter after the fact. As you can see, we are not gaining on it and it's not because of the lack of time, effort, or money. We need to change our strategy. The most significant strategy change we can accomplish is to have our State Legislature pass a container deposit bill.
In the 11 states which currently have a container deposit bill, container litter decreased by as much as 84 percent (78 percent average) and additionally, other types of roadside litter decreased by as much as 64 percent (39 percent average). Container recycling rates increased from 10 percent to 85 percent of containers sold.
The bottle bill also inspires other kinds of recycling. Overall recycling rates (for cardboard, paper, etc.) in bottle bill states are much higher, an average of 30-35 percent, compared to a national average of approximately 20 percent and barely 10 percent in Tennessee. Improved recycling rates generate lower landfill costs and increased revenue from cardboard, paper and container sales. Many Tennessee counties currently pay in excess of $30/ton to landfill their solid wastes.
The bottle bill will place a 5-cent deposit on beer, ale, soft drinks, mineral water, bottled water, juices, teas, coffee drinks, "sports drinks," wine coolers, mixed spirits (e.g. hard lemonade) and other carbonated and non-carbonated beverages. It does not include wine, liquor, milk, or other dairy products, dietary supplements and a handful of other liquids or frozen liquids.
Containers will be bar-coded so that they can be scanned and sorted electronically. Grocery stores and other sellers will not be required to redeem the containers. Instead, state certified private redemption centers will serve this function. They will receive a 3-cent per container processing fee. I would hope that the law could be written to utilize the convenience centers as redemption units since they are manned, currently receive recyclables, and should be easily converted.
The trail of the 5-cent deposit will begin with the distributor paying the state for each beverage sold in Tennessee. The distributor gets 5 cents back when he sells the beverage to a retailer, who gets 5 cents back when he sells the beverage to the consumer. The consumer gets 5 cents back when he redeems the empty container at a certified redemption center. The redemption center owner gets 5 cents back when he submits an invoice to the state. He also gets a 3-cent handling fee, providing that he recycles the container. The redemption center owner sells the empty containers to a recycler or third party handler. The 5 cents is not a tax; but, it does promote recycling in that it takes 5 cents from those persons who do not want to recycle and gives it to those persons who do.
The 3-cent handling fee will be paid to the state by the beverage distributors to cover the costs of keeping their packaging out of our landfills and off our roadsides and waterways, and insuring it is returned to the manufacturing stream. It is interesting to note that a 2006 survey in all 50 states found that retail prices for a 12-pack of Pepsi tended to be slightly lower than the national average in the 11 bottle bill states. Perhaps the manufacturers were spreading their 3-cent increase across those states without a bottle bill. Additionally, the "Litter Grant" portion of the Tennessee Malt Beverage and Soft Drink Tax will be terminated.
The 85 percent redemption rate will allow the state to retain approximately $31 million annually. The projected usage of these funds will receive much debate in the state legislature. The bill as currently written would almost double the litter grant funds.
I personally would like to make the distribution of these funds to Keep Tennessee Beautiful (KTNB) more equitable with the counties share. This position is not based on the fact that KTNB has publicly opposed the bottle bill; but, is based upon the fact that counties can utilize the funds more directly to achieve recycling improvements and litter reductions such as additional recycling drop-off containers, locations, and marketing; and increased litter enforcement.
I also hope that a large portion should be allocated to the "property tax reimbursement fund" to compensate local governments for tax revenue reductions as a result of the "greenbelt law" acreage.
The bottle bill will reduce roadside litter by as much as 75 percent. The $10-12 million annual statewide costs will also be reduced and our tax rate improved through increased recycling tonnages, reduced solid waste landfill tonnages, and fees from redemption centers. Additionally, for every ton of aluminum we keep out of the landfills, we save an energy equivalent of 35.7 barrels of oil. It is truly amazing that we have not passed a bottle bill many years ago.
On Jan. 22, The Maury County Commission approved, with a 3 to 1 margin, a resolution recommending that the state legislature adopt a "Container Deposit Bill." The Maury County Farm Bureau voted unanimously to support this resolution. Your help will be greatly appreciated in supporting the Container Deposit Bill in the 2008 Tennessee State Legislature.
Glen E. Hasse is a Maury County Commissioner, 9th District.
