Included as an amendment to a bigger jobs bill, the update would expand the bottle redemption law to include plastic bottles used for water and juice.
House and Senate leaders started debating Wednesday whether to include an expanded bottle deposit amendment in a bill designed to spur job creation. The bill was passed in the Senate Thursday and is now being hashed out in a conference committee comprised of member of both chambers. Gov. Deval Patrick has said that he supports it. But the House has fought passage of an expanded bottle bill, which Speaker Robert DeLeo and others in the House view as a tax. But Sen. Robert Hedlund disputes this view, saying that taxes can't be redeemed. The expansion to the 31-year-old law designed to promote recycling and reduce litter would add plastic bottles used for water, juices, iced tea and sports drinks to the list of containers subject to the 5…
Bottled water, sports drinks and teas are not currently redeemable.
- OPINION
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Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Every year across Massachusetts, more than 30,000 tons of non-carbonated beverage bottles are buried in landfills, burned in waste-to-energy plants, or tossed onto our streets, parks and beaches. That’s enough plastic bottles to fill Fenway Park – from the press box to the Green Monster – five times. For nearly three decades, the Massachusetts Bottle Deposit Law has accomplished its intended purpose: providing the financial incentive for consumers to recycle beer and soda containers. Thanks to this law, 80 percent are recycled – more than twice the recycling rate for non-deposit containers. It’s time for Massachusetts to update our laws to include bottled water, sports drinks, teas and other non-carbonated beverages. In addition to …
