I couldn’t believe my ears when I heard that the “Bigger Better Bottle Bill” (or at least a modified version of the original idea) had been signed into law in New York State by Governor Patterson today. Groovy Green has written on this issue in the past first praising then-Governor Spitzer for supporting the measure, then panning him for failing to include it in his budget. Where Spitzer dropped the ball, Patterson (or should I say the need to increase state revenue) has come through for groups like NYPIRG who have been pushing to add 5 cent deposits to non-carbonated beverages to promote recycling.
The bill fails to include sports drinks and iced tea, which is dissapointing given their increasing popularity. However, a 5 cent deposit on bottled water will mean an increased likelihood that the 3.2 billion bottles of water consumed in NY will find their way back to the recycling center, and not discarded in the trash (or along our roadsides).
Environmentalists are happy (Gouverneur Times):
Senior Environmental Associate of the New York Public Interest Research Group Laura Haight said: “The expansion of the Bottle Bill would be one of New York’s most significant environmental achievements of the past decade. Governor Paterson deserves tremendous credit for his leadership and initiative in this effort, which would boost recycling rates and make our communities noticeably cleaner.”
Recycling center owners and employers are happy (News10Now):
Keith Alexander, owner of FM Returnables, laid off three workers, scaled back pay and scaled back costs just to keep his doors open. But all of that could soon change. When water bottles and other non-deposit bottles become redeemable.
“It will increase our volume, plus it will increase the handling fee, so our income is going to increase by about 75 percent,” said Alexander.
Well, not all of them… (WHEC)
Wegmans says this will have a significant impact on its operations. There are 48 Wegmans stores in New York. And the company estimates it would have to take back about 80-million water bottles a year. That’s in addition to the 210-million other glass, can and plastic containers redeemed at Wegmans.
“We’re going to have to install more efficient equipment to handle the increased volumes so that customers aren’t inconvenienced,” said Jo Natale, Wegmans spokeswoman. “Our first concern was the customer. We know that bringing bottles back to the store isn’t easy for customers.”
Isn’t easy?!? Like driving to the store, lugging a 20 lb. case of water to your car, and driving home - when you could get the same thing out of your tap - IS EASY??? Ahem… I digress.
I’ll leave you this gem, to reignite your disdain for bottled water drinkers…
But customer Sara Donofrio, who was redeeming her bottles at the automated machine at Wegmans Chili Avenue store, said “It’s a lot of work to bring the bottles back. We should just discard them.”
[sigh]
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The article Bigger Better Bottle Bill Update is syndicated for use on our Green Lifestyle Blog. The original content can be found here.
