March 14, 2010
DNJ.com
Litter legislation
'Bottle bill' would offer revenue to recyclers
'Bottle bill' would offer revenue to recyclers
The Tennessee bottle bill is bipartisan legislation designed to keep drink containers from littering the state by putting them into an efficient recycling loop. Senate bill 1404 is sponsored by Sen. Doug Jackson, D-Dickson, and Sen. Randy McNally, R-Oak Ridge, and House bill 1167 is sponsored by Rep. Mike McDonald, D-Portland, and Rep. Jim Coley, R- Bartlett. Go to scenictennessee.org for more information about the group.
Leslee Dodd Karl, president, Scenic Tennessee
Background: Born in Savannah, Ga., moved to Rutherford County in 1960
Education: Central High School, Oakland High School Class of '73; bachelor's and master's degrees f rom MTSU, Ph.D. from Mississippi State, graduate training at Northwestern Medical School
Career: Teacher, scientist
Local organizations: Read to Succeed, Greenhouse Ministries, Daughters of American Revolution, Hospice, Community Resource Center
Church: St. Paul's Episcopal
Age: 54
As president of Scenic Tennessee, Murfreesboro resident Leslee Dodd Karl is advocating passage of the Tennessee bottle bill in an attempt to keep drink containers from littering the environment and to create an efficient statewide recycling program.
Karl sat down with The DNJ last week to discuss the initiative called Pride of Place.
Q: You're the president of Scenic Tennessee. Why did you decide to get involved in that organization?
Karl: I took some time and decided what was really important to me, and the natural world, the environment, is something that has always meant a lot to me, so I decided to spend most of my time in efforts that strive to either protect the environment, educate about the environment, promote the environment. And Scenic Tennessee is the only organization dedicated solely to protecting and educating about Tennessee's scenic character. It's a grass-roots, statewide organization started in 1987, and we began with thoughtful billboard placement, protecting scenic highways, historic preservation, and urban forestry is a good one.
Q: One of your biggest issues right now is the bottle bill, which would put a five-cent deposit on bottles and cans. Why did the group choose that as a big initiative?
Karl: Partly because of the response from visitors that tourism and other groups have received and also energy costs. Tennesseans purchase 450 billion containers of beverages a year. Only 10 percent of those are recycled, so that means 45 million end up somewhere, and about 50 percent of roadside litter in Tennessee is beverage containers, so it's not just aluminum and glass, it's plastic. ... It's a very visible problem and one we felt we could have some impact on. We started a program called Pride of Place, which is a comprehensive recycling effort, a big part of which is the Tennessee Beverage Container Recycling Act, or the Tennessee bottle bill.
Q: The bill is in a committee and it's postponed until next week. What types of problems are you running into in the Legislature?
Karl: It's difficult for an elected official who has received money from an industry to vote for something that industry is telling them is bad for them. That's just the truth, and it's difficult sometimes for elected officials to vote for the 6 million people of Tennessee rather than for a particular industry, and that's just a fact of politics and I think it's happening on the bottle bill and the Scenic Vistas Act. ...
Q: This matter was before the County Commission. Did you all get a good response?
Karl: Yes, they all seemed favorable. They haven't put together a resolution yet, but the County Mayors Association voted in favor, unanimously, of a deposit act with the stipulation that the first moneys to come out of this fund would be to continue the county litter grants, which is what pays for inmate pickup, education and Keep Tennessee Beautiful. In 1981, there was a bill passed called the Litter Grant Act, and it put a one-eighth-cent levy on all malt drink and beverage containers sold, so that's been funding the county litter grants. In 2008, Rutherford County got about $95,000, so every single county, all 95 counties, get money from that fund. So the bottle bill maintains that one-eighth-cent levy, and that is allocated strictly to continue funding the county litter grants.
Q: The idea is to put the returnable deposit on drink containers to get people to pick them up and save them and turn them in for money. Do you think that will make enough impact to cut down on litter in Tennessee?
Karl: Statistically, the thought is that recycling could go from 10 percent to up to 85 percent. ... Michigan has a 98 percent recycling rate, but they have a 10- cent deposit, so that is a real incentive. Iowa has done very well. Recycling rates in states that have deposit container legislation are in the 90s, so Tennessee could get up to 85 percent. If people get in the habit and start getting the money, hopefully, it will go up. A financial incentive always seems to have a positive impact on something like this.
Q: Opponents are contending that this would cause a hardship on store owners, possibly drive up the cost of a six-pack of Coke. Is that a problem?
Karl: One of the changes as it exists right now is to remove returns to grocery stores or convenience stores. ... They will not be redemption centers, so grocers will not have to contend with any returned beverage containers. One of the good things about the bill, and it's been very positive in all the other s tates, is that new businesses pop up as redemption centers. So there will be Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation-certified redemption centers. (It's projected that there will be 400 to 500 redemption centers and they would employ about 2,000 people, so the bottle bill would create jobs.)
A grocer could choose to have a redemption center, but that will be completely their choice. A six-pack of beverage would go up five cents a can, all of which would be redeemable when you take them to a redemption center. In November of 2009, ... at Walmart in Maine a 12-pack of Pepsi was $1.98; a 12-pack at a Walmart in Nashville was $4.67. So what happens in states that have bottle bills many times is ... that the production and manufacturing costs are so low because they have a steady stream of high-quality recyclables that they break down again and reuse to make containers that their manufacturing costs go down. ...
Q: Some people say that Tennessee should go ahead and require mandatory recycling instead of passing a bottle bill. How do you respond to that?
Karl: I used to think curbside recycling was absolutely the way to go. But as I've researched recycling more, the processors, the people who actually need this stuff, have come to see that curbside, the products are so mixed up, even if they go to a sorter, they're not sorted properly, so that the end product of the recycling is not of high quality. And that really cuts down on their advantage. ... Curbside recycling is a good idea. Ideally, it would be coupled with deposit legislation so that beverage containers are pulled out of the curbside. Curbside would be things like cardboard and newspaper, which are valuable. ... Counties can choose to add redemption center, like in Rutherford County, they could choose to put a redemption center at all the convenience centers so the county could still retain the profit from all the recyclables. The county doesn't necessarily lose any money with the bottle bill.
Q: Is there anything else you want to throw in about the bottle bill?
Karl: Keeping a container out of the landfill is not recycling unless it's actually made into something else. The whole point of recycling is to try to create a cycle in which a plastic bottle is broken down, made into another bottle or something else, that is then broken down, so it's a circle. With something like a container deposit, again the product to the processor is clean, so it's worth a lot more money to them. By clean, I mean it's just plastic bottles, no particular number. It's important for us to take a broader view of recycling. It's always a good thing to keep materials out of the landfill, but it's important to establish a real cycle, and a cleaner product to a person or processor is going to go a long way in establishing that.
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