April 1, 2010
Opinion
Put efforts into recycling plans
Bottle bill proponents make it sound easy to get a five cent deposit returned, but is it really?
The Tennessee General Assembly is considering bottle bill legislation which would require a 5-cent deposit on each beverage container you buy. Unfortunately, it won’t be so easy to get your deposit back.
Do consumers realize that they won’t be able to return containers where they purchased them? Due to the health problems with storing large amounts of waste in the same building with food, the bill does not require retailers to take back deposits.
So consumers will have to go to “redemption centers” to return containers and get their money back.
Proponents say that 500 redemption centers will be established. Based on the size of Tennessee, that means we’d have 500 redemption centers for every 82 miles.
So redemption centers may not be conveniently located for many Tennesseans, and would likely have more limited hours than grocery and convenience stores. There will probably be more centers in urban areas, but even so, most citizens will have to travel some distance to a center. People in rural areas can expect to travel long distances.
Once a consumer gets to a redemption center – a long line probably awaits them. Proponents anticipate individually scanning every container.
Just think about that for a minute. You are a busy mom – do you have time to wait in a long line and then individually feed each container into a machine?
And wait, that’s not all. After all that time and effort, you might not get cash back.
The legislation does not require a redemption center or reverse vending machine to give the deposit back in cash to the consumer. It only requires the “value” to be returned. Your refund could for store credit somewhere you don’t want to shop, or some kind of voucher.
Here is an added bonus for folks in areas with curbside recycling – now you can’t use that convenience for all your recyclables. You can put some items in the curbside recycling bin, but the rest you will have to lug somewhere to get your money back, or give up that deposit money.
Also, this bill guts the funding for curbside recycling by taking out the most valuable item, aluminum beverage containers, from the mix. If this bill passes, it is doubtful that any new cities will initiate curbside recycling and those that do have the program might not have the funds to continue.
Curbside recycling is the most convenient, most efficient, most cost effective (one-fifth the cost of bottle deposit), and collects widest range of recyclables.
Instead of trying to get inefficient, ineffective, costly and time consuming programs like bottle deposit passed, why don’t supporters work to help cities set- up curbside recycling programs?
Ask your legislator to support curbside recycling instead of bottle deposit.
Stuart Wood is CEO of Holston Distributing Co. in Johnson City, Tenn.
http://www2.tricities.com/tri/news/opinion/columnists/article/put_efforts_into_recycling_plans/43841/
