Separating Fact from Fiction

by Phil Sego, Massachusetts Sierra Club

Since the campaign to pass Question 2, the Bottle Bill Update, began, consumers have been deluged with conflicting information. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been asked… is it really true that the bottle bill will cause ...?[i]

 

What exactly will the bottle bill do, and what won’t it do?

Very simply, passing Question 2 will extend the same advantages and benefits to non-carbonated beverages that currently exist for soda and beer.

1 – Passing Question 2 will help stop litter. The Massachusetts Department of Fish and Wildlife, Riverways Division has, on numerous litter cleanups, counted what they found: a non-deposit bottle is NINE times more likely to become litter than a deposit bottle. At these cleanups, deposit bottles were rare.

2 - Passing Question 2 will increase recycling. The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is responsible for the state’s waste and recycling management. After numerous studies, they have stated that 80% of deposit bottles are recycled, but only 23% of water bottles are recycled. The rest become litter or trash.

3 – Passing Question 2 will save money for our cities and towns. Picking up litter and trash costs money, and this burden is placed on our struggling municipalities. Litter cleanup is costly, and between cleanups, our streets and parks are too often litter strewn. Half the litter is water and juice bottles. A study by Mass DEP showed that cities and towns would save $7 million every year if we enact the bottle bill update.

What voters need to know: Out-of-state Big Beverage Companies have put $9 million into defeating Question 2. Rather than telling consumer that they simply want to sell more beverages at higher profits, they’re conducting a campaign of disinformation. Investigative journalists around the state have repeatedly caught them lying in their ads, and the “no” side has been forced to change them. You can decide if they have any credibility left.

On the YES side are respected non-profits like the Sierra Club, Mass Audubon, and League of Women Voters MA, and 100 environmental and non-profit organizations. On the ‘no’ side are Big Beverage companies like Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Polar, Nestle, the big supermarkets, and the trash haulers.

CLAIM: This will cost consumers $20-40-60-100 million.

TRUTH: The bottlers’ claims have changed daily, and they even changed them during a debate.[ii] This is just another example of their effort to mislead voters with scare tactics. The TRUTH is that when ME, NY, CT, OR and CA updated their bottle bills, the bottlers also predicted huge cost increases, which never happened. The reality is that DEP found that beverage costs were actually higher in NH – which has no BB than in Maine, which has the biggest BB. The error-ridden ‘financial impact report’ paid for published by the beverage industry claimed still another amount. Big Beverage paid off a professor $7 to rubber stamp it. The ‘no’ side has openly rejected all Federal, State, and exiting industry data and substituted a new set paid for by the Big Beverage industry.

CLAIM: Cities and towns will lose valuable materials

TRUTH: The Massachusetts DEP reports that cities and towns will save up $7 million in litter cleanup, even taking into account any losses from the sale of recyclables. As a result, we’ll have cleaner parks, cleaner streets, and cleaner ballfields. We’ll have cleaner municipalities, with parks that people can be proud of.

[stops litter]

CLAIM: It’s only 1/2%, 1/8%, or 1/12% of the waste stream

TRUTH: On one hand, our opponents are claiming that it’s a tiny percentage of the waste stream, and their numbers change daily. On the other they’re claiming that it’s SO HUGE that our trash rates will skyrocket. The real number, according to DEP’s reports, is about 12% by volume. Anyone who’s been to a landfill will verify that as an obvious fact.

CLAIM: This is an old law

TRUTH: Old laws are bad? Like the Bill of Rights, the Wilderness Act, the Endangered Species Act? This makes no sense; it’s simply the result of a focus group response. Old laws are as valid as new laws, perhaps even more so.

CLAIM: The bottle bill is a tax

If so, where can I get a refund on my income and property taxes? You can get your nickels back at just about any store or redemption center in the state. A deposit and a tax are very different, and this deposit is 100% refundable.

CLAIM: The inflation escalator clause is “taxation without representation.” TRUTH: Veteran’s benefits and social security are examples of the use of inflation indexing. There are well over 10,000 government payments, charges, deposits, and fees that are stated as percentages of adjusted to the consumer price index. These are adjusted by state regulatory agencies and not the legislature. It’s preposterous to believe that the state legislature can or should review the thousands of payments, charges, deposits, and fees on an annual basis. But voters need to know that they will always get 100% of their deposit back. By the year 2050, when a 20-ounce bottle of Coke is projected to cost $3.80, the deposit will only be a dime.

CLAIM: People already have curbside which is easier

Curbside recycling is great – if you never leave your home. But people do leave, and since 75% of these beverages are consumed on-the-go, they’re out of the reach of curbside. That’s why only 23% of non-deposit bottles are recycled vs. 80% of nickel deposit bottles.

Voters need to know…

What’s really important is that the bottle bill is the best proven recycling system for bottles and cans by far. The bottle bill gets 80% of nickel deposit containers. This is many more times as effective as curbside, which recycles only 23%. You have to be really bad at math to think that 23% is better. Litter cleanups prove that a water bottle is nine times more likely to become litter than a deposit bottle.

Litter cleanup is expensive, stopping it before it happens is best. And studies prove that a non-deposit bottle is 9X more likely to become litter than one with a nickel deposit.  We want clean parks, beaches, streets, and ballfields. When tourists come to our beautiful state, they always comment on how litter strewn it is.

On one side are 100 environmental and non-profit organizations, like the Sierra Club, LWVMA, Audubon, and every enviro org in the state. It’s also supported by Governor Patrick, Senators Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren, over a hundred elected leaders, and 210 cities and towns. On the other is the out-of-state big beverage companies and people they’ve paid to do their bidding.

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[i] Will the Bottle Bill Cause Earthquakes is a parody written in 1982 by marketing guru Ken Swope for our first campaign to pass the bottle bill. The industry arguments were as silly then as they are now. Visit http://youtu.be/ZAlzA3zralk

[ii] MassRecycle Oct 28, 2014. The opponents stated $60, $68, and 100 million

Claims of Delusion

by Phil Sego, Massachusetts Sierra Club

Like many of the proponents who are working on the bottle bill, I've been making presentations before various groups and organizations. Some of us, including myself, have been meeting the opposition toe-to-toe in formal televised debates.

I've never considered myself a debater. I am passionate about the bottle bill, and angered by the misstatements and fabrications by our opponents. I try to focus on the issues, but some times, the constant stream of disinformation makes me wonder, "Do these people actually think anyone believes them?" Sadly, many people do.

These are just a few of the more common fabrications by our opponents:

"Prices will go up $20 million (or sometimes 40, 60, and 140 million)"

The number seems to be going up every day. In just one hour, while I was participating in a debate yesterday, the number jumped from 60 to 68. But a month ago, it was 140.

The FACT is that every time that any state tries to update or pass a bottle bill, the Big Beverage companies threaten a price increase -- and they've been doing this for over 30 years, In fact, they said the same thing here in 1982 when we enacted our bottle bill. A year later, the VP of Coca-Cola Donald Dowd admitted that it was a lie.

The TRUTH is that when Maine, Connecticut, California, Oregon, and New York updated their bottle bills, the bottlers also threatened massive increases. None of these threats ever materialized.

To get to the truth, the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) studied beverage costs in New England, They found that costs were actually higher in NH – which has no Bottle bill.  Maine, which has the most comprehensive bottle bill, had the lowest costs. So much for the scare tactics and threats from Big Beverage.

The bottlers have been caught repeatedly in this game of "scare the consumer." They've been caught falsifying data repeatedly by investigative reporters. The 20-40-100 million threat is just another example of making claims to scare and mislead voters. The fact is that they've lost all credibility.

Phil Sego is an Environmental Advocate at the Massachusetts Sierra Club

LTE 10/16: Vote Yes On 2

From The Concord Journal 

Vote yes on 2

On Election Day, Nov. 4, we will have a chance to bring the current bottle deposit law into the 21st century by voting yes on ballot question 2. The current bottle bill dates from 1982, when many beverages such as sports drinks, juices, water and teas were not sold in bottles.

Non-deposit bottles outnumber deposit bottles three to one in the litter found along streets and in public parks, and are not recycled at curbside. It is estimated that the Expanded Bottle Bill will save cities and towns approximately $6.7 million a year in litter pick up and trash disposal costs. That’s why 209 cities and towns, including Concord, have passed resolutions supporting an updated bottle bill.

The opponents of Vote Yes on 2 are spending millions of dollars to try to defeat this rather mild expansion of an existing bottled that asks that more beverage containers have a refundable deposit at point of purchase. A “yes” vote will decrease litter on our roadsides, at sport events, in parks and trails and wherever people gather.

The state legislature has refused to pass an updated bottle bill for years. Now there is a choice for voters to make on Nov. 4. Please vote yes on Question 2.

— Ardis Bordman, Monument Street

10/15: Mass. should bring bottle bill into 21st century

From Suffolk Journal

Mass. should bring bottle bill into 21st century
By Ian Kea

It’s about time.

Thirty years after the Massachusetts bottle bill was first passed, it now has a chance to be updated on the ballot come Nov. 4, and voters should vote yes on Question 2, the expansion of the bottle bill.

According to bottlebill.com, Massachusetts is one of 10 states to have a bottle deposit system in place. But, the state’s bottle deposit system does not currently accept mainstream beverages such as water, juice and sports drinks. Only carbonated beverages have a deposit. The updated bottle bill would include non-carbonated beverage bottles.

The current bottle bill works as followed; retailers, like Market Basket, for example, give distributors, who sell to the retailer for a profit, a 5 cent deposit for each can or bottle purchased. When the consumer purchases a beverage, they are paying that deposit back to the retailer. When they return the can or bottle to a retail store, redemption center, or reverse vending machine, they are refunded for their 5 cent deposit is refunded. Essentially, the bottle bill is an incentive for the consumer to recycle. The end result is more recyclable materials, less waste is produced, more money is saved, and more help to eliminate the world’s carbon footprint.

Opponents of the bill, such as Republican gubernatorial candidate Charlie Baker and Coca-Cola, have argued that curbside recycling is already enough. Yet 80 percent of bottles attached with a deposit are recycled, compared to 23 percent of bottles without a deposit attached, according to the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection. All unclaimed deposits would be given back to the state for environmental protection measures, saving taxpayers a small chunk of change come April.

Opponents of the bottle bill have also said it is a waste of taxpayer money, but according to the Massachusetts Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, individual cities and towns can save approximately $7 million annually in avoided waste, recycling and litter collection costs through an expanded bottle bill, making it a fiscally responsible choice.

Every year across the commonwealth, more than 30,000 tons of non-carbonated beverage bottles are buried in landfills, burned, or littered throughout Massachusetts’ streets, parks, and beaches. According to the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection Sector of Waste and Recycling, that’s enough bottles to fill Fenway Park from the press box to the green monster five times.

For the 10 percent of Massachusetts residents who do not have curbside recycling, this expanded bottle bill not only gives an incentive, but also gives many consumers a new opportunity to recycle.

Massachusetts, according to Bloomberg.com, is the most environmentally friendly and energy efficient state in the country. The expanded and updated bottle bill would not only create a new standard for recycling in Massachusetts, but the nation as well.

Over the past decade, 210 towns in the commonwealth have passed measures supporting a new updated bottle bill, according to the Yes on 2 Coalition. Now it is voters’ turn to vote yes on Question 2, to save money, reduce litter, become more energy efficient, as well as create a new national standard for recycling.

10/16: Vote yes on the bottle bill this Nov.

From Tufts Daily

Vote yes on the bottle bill this Nov.

This November, Massachusetts voters will have an important opportunity to reduce litter and further their state’s commitment to recycling through a ballot referendum. Question 2 on the Nov. 4 ballot — also known as the bottle bill – would expand the state’s beverage container deposit law.Massachusetts voters should be informed about the effects of Question 2 and we urge you to vote in favor of it. A yes vote will expand deposits to containers not currently included under the law — nonalcoholic, non-carbonated drinks. The proposal also includes a provision requiring the state to adjust the container deposit amount every five years to reflect changes in the Consumer Price Index. Future deposit rates could not be set below five cents if passed.

Conservation and community groups have lobbied for years for the expansion of the bottle bill to include plastic bottles of non-carbonated beverages. Supporters of Question 2 argue that the existing bottle bill is not expansive enough. Statistics show that while 80 percent of beer and soda containers get recycled, only 23 percent of nondeposit containers do. Although opponents of the bill argue that the price hike will be costly to consumers, the solution is simple: Consumers can get back their five cents if they recycle the bottle. The money leftover from consumers who do not collect their deposit would enter a re-established Clean Environment Fund to be used for cleaning up parks and other environmental projects in the state. Expanding this law would not only increase recycling and decrease the amount of recyclable items in landfills, but, according to the Coalition for an Updated Bottle Bill, could also save up to $7 million annually for municipalities by reducing costs of trash removal.

While a yes vote would expand the bottle bill effective April 22, 2015, a vote against Question 2 this November would leave the law as it currently is. Opponents of the bill argue that the proposal wastes taxpayer dollars to expand an outdated system and instead, Massachusetts should seek other methods to increase recycling. An alternative plan was proposed to repeal the bottle bill entirely, but research from the Sierra Club Massachusetts determined that this plan would result in significant job loss as well as a reduced recycling rate.

Local communities along with groups such as Mass Audubon Society and the Merrimack River Watershed Council have voiced support for Question 2. On Nov. 4 voters will get a chance to speak up as well. If you plan to vote on Nov. 4, don’t ignore the ballot initiatives like the bottle bill. Instead, voice your support for a cleaner environment by voting in support of the referendum.

10/15: How to Cap Plastic Bottle Waste

 

From Good Magazine
By: Angie Schmitt
In the United States alone, 1,500 plastic bottles of water are consumed every second. Every hour, Americans throw away, on average, about 2.5 million plastic bottles of all types. If we include all cans and bottles—soda, teas, energy drinks, beer—about 224 billion beverage containers are tossed out every year, adding up to literal mountains of trash.

Though recently plastic bags have been a hot topic and the focus of environmental campaigns in states like California, plastic bottles are also a major offender, contributing significantly to the almost 32 million tons of plastic that ends up in landfills every year. Only about 23 percent of plastic bottles are ever recycled, in part because they’re often consumed on the go. Because these bottles take from 450 to almost 1,000 years to biodegrade, each year, the pile grows larger. Every single piece of plastic ever produced still exists somewhere.

 

And the waste—as bafflingly enormous as it is—only accounts for part of the problem. Plastic bottles are also extremely energy intensive to produce. Fill up a plastic bottle about a quarter of the way—that’s about how much oil it takes just to produce the package. Just supplying Americans with plastic bottles consumes 15 to 17 million barrels of oil annually—enough for 100,000 cars. And that doesn’t even include the energy consumed by hauling them around in heavy trucks.

Though nobody’s seriously flirting with an outright ban, plastic bottles lend themselves to an elegant policy trick that can greatly reduce the environmental impact of all that guzzling. You might even have it where you live: It’s called a bottle bill.

Bottle bills require beverage retailers to collect a five-cent (or more) deposit on every recyclable bottle sold. The deposit is returned to the consumer when they return the bottle. Ten states, including California, Michigan and Massachusetts, currently have bottle bills in place.

Adding that tiny deposit—that little system of reward for those who consume responsibly—can have an enormous environmental impact. States with bottle bills recycle beverage containers at almost three times the rate of states that do not. In Michigan, which has the highest deposit rate in the nation (10 cents), the bottle bill has been credited with reducing total waste 6 to 8 percent a year.

“What’s true is that the bottle bill is the most effective program ever devised to prevent litter and increase recycling,” wrote Phil Sego of the Massachusetts Sierra Club recently in The Huffington Post.

Sego is part of a coalition in Massachusetts fighting to update bottle laws that predate new types of drink containers, mainly from non-carbonated juices, or soft drinks like Gatorade.

 

Updating the bottle law, he says, would save the state’s taxpayers $7 million annually in waste management costs and prevent an additional 1.25 billion bottles from ending up in landfills—that’s enough to fill Fenway Park every year.

The power of bottle bills is how it shifts the costs and responsibilities associated with beverage bottles from municipalities to producers and consumers. Just a small monetary deposit can dramatically change the equation.

But the most dramatic impact of these bills is the extent to which they curb littering. In total, about 2 billion beverage containers a year are discarded in open or public places, according to the Container Recycling Institute. These bottles end up strewn about our streets and public places, from highway embankments to parks. Some of those will even eventually make it to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Studies have shown these bills reduce bottle litter by as much as 84 percent and overall litter by close to two-thirds.

 

Unfortunately, environmentalists promoting bottle bills face an uphill battle against big beverage. Multinational firms like Coke and Pepsi have little interest in recycling or local quality of life and have billions to spend on opposing bottle bills. In Massachusetts, beverage companies have already spent $8 million just fighting the minor update in the state legislature. That’s compared to a mere $600,000 raised by the environmental coalition promoting the bill. Environmental advocates will also ask Ohio voters to approve a totally new bottle bill in November. They’ll face long odds, but if they succeed, the benefits for the state could be enormous.

Illustrations by Josh Covarrubias

LTE 10/10: Sixth Grader: Yes on bottle bill is a vote for the next generation

From the Lowell Sun

I'm not old enough to vote, but this is what my sixth-grade class wants in their future. Don't make us wait until we are old enough to take action ourselves. Take action now.

The present bottle bill is good, but our plan for the future is better. The present bottle bill requires containers of carbonated beverages to be returnable for five cents. It doesn't cover containers of noncarbonated beverages like water, tea, or sports drinks.

The new bottle bill that people will vote for will help us use less plastic. There will be less money for trash service from the city. It helps us make a cleaner environment, such as cleaner highways and nonpolluted oceans.

If you start recycling and refunding bottles and paper, they can turn into reliable resources people may need in the future.

Please vote for the bottle bill.

KELLIE LAMARCHE

Lowell

Read more: http://www.lowellsun.com/opinion/ci_26701277/sixth-grader-yes-bottle-bill#ixzz3GjpAHEMG