October 7, 2010
Don't bottle up recycling zeal
The transfer stations in our towns provide recycling opportunities for paper, cardboard, glass, aluminum, tin cans, plastic bottles and small and large metal items. Depending on market conditions some items can be sold to material recovery facilities to create new products. An important method of recycling is the Massachusetts Bottle Bill, which provides for the redemption of aluminum, plastic and glass beverage containers. Massachusetts has had one of the most successful redemption, anti-litter recycling programs in the country. We recycle nearly 75 percent of deposit containers, compared with approximately 35 percent for non-deposit containers.
Redemption centers, often small, family-owned businesses, serve the consumer by providing an easy method of refunding the deposit. They receive 2.25 cents per container from the distributors. The redemption centers have not received an increase for nearly two decades. Because of this, consumers have fewer redemption centers available and are often required to stand in front of machines to redeem their deposits.
In the recent session of the Massachusetts Legislature the bills regarding expansion or improvements to the Bottle Bill never made it out of the committees. The Legislature believes there just isn't much public interest in the Bottle Bill — really? Citizens go out of their way to redeem the deposits, donate them to charities or to keep their communities free of litter. The 5-cent deposits that do not get redeemed go to the Massachusetts General Fund. The distributors keep the 2.25 cents, which adds to their profits. There is no lack of interest on the part of the state or the beverage distributors in keeping the citizens' approximately $35 million in unredeemed nickels per year and the beverage distributors saving the $15 million that would have gone to the redemption centers.
When citizens put deposit items into the trash bags (which are considered banned items, since they are 100 percent recyclable), they add to the costs of trash management. The most cost-efficient and beneficial way to positively recycle is to redeem the deposit beverage containers or give them to charities. A good bottle bill keeps Massachusetts clean, provides jobs, saves on waste management and recycles resources.
As the largest charitable redeemer of glass beer bottles on Cape Cod, I see firsthand that we contribute to the stimulus of the economy by supporting small, family-owned redemption centers. We keep tons of glass out of the waste stream.
Please either redeem those deposits or give the containers, along with your beer boxes for the mandatory re-boxing, to local charities. This is a citizen-based economic stimulus package that consumers control. We can keep hundreds of thousands of dollars working for us on Cape Cod.
Paul Hebert is director of Champ Charitable Redemption Partnerships at CHAMP Homes.
http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20101007/OPINION/10070336/-1/NEWSMAP
