Tuesday, March 11, 2014

"Bridging the Divide" over the Bottle Bill Ballot Initiative






BOTTLE BILL OPPONENT EYES “CONSENSUS” ON BALLOT ALTERNATIVE

By Andy Metzger

STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE


STATE HOUSE, BOSTON, MARCH 6, 2014…..An opponent of the proposal to expand the bottle bill said Thursday he prefers trying to hammer out a consensus alternative to the initiative petition heading towards the November ballot.


House Committee on Telecommunications, Utilities and Energy Chairman John Keenan, a Salem Democrat who has announced he will not run for re-election this year, said bridging the divide over the perennial issue is something he hopes to accomplish this year.


“I don’t know what the over-under is on this ballot initiative. But I will echo Representative Peake, as well. I think the petition process, the ballot initiative is a very sloppy way to do legislation,” Keenan said at a hearing on the initiative petition Thursday. He said, “I would much prefer to work together with you folks and folks on the other side to hammer out some sort of bill that has a consensus.”


Rep. Sarah Peake, a proponent of expanding the bottle bill so there are deposits on more than just beer and carbonated beverages, described the referendum heading toward the November ballot as “more draconian” than what the Legislature could produce.


“I’m concerned about beer bottlers. I’m concerned about the juice industry, but if we let this go to the ballot, those concerns go into the wind,” Peake said. She said, “Let’s see if we can do what we’re elected to do as legislators.”


Opponents of expanding the deposit law have backed an alternative (H 2513/ S 379) filed by Sen. Michael Moore, a Millbury Democrat, and Rep. John Binienda, a Worcester Democrat, that would phase out the 5-cent deposit on cans and bottles, replacing it with a 1-cent fee paid by distributors and bottlers, funding recycling initiatives.


The scope of the bottle redemption law has been a perennial issue on Beacon Hill, as supporters of expansion say it will reduce litter by closing a nonsensical exemption for water, iced tea and juice bottles. Opponents say bottle deposits are an outdated and inefficient method to boost recycling, and one that burdens retailers with collecting the old bottles.


“What other retail business needs to take back its customers garbage on the selling floor?” asked Bob Selby, owner of Kappy’s liquor stores in Peabody and Danvers. He told the News Service, “We get snakes; we get syringes; we get used condoms.”


Gardner Mayor Mark Hawke, whose city has a “pay as you throw” trash pickup and “single stream” recycling, said cigarette butts and lottery tickets make up the majority of the trash he sees and a bottle bill expansion will only drive more people north of the border, to New Hampshire, to shop.


Bottle bill proponents say curbside pickup is only one aspect of preventing litter and boosting recycling, and the bill’s expansion is aimed at beverages people drink on-the-go, which is why liquor and wine are exempt. They argue the 5-cent deposit will create a financial incentive to recycle those bottles.


Peake said she’d spoken to a member of a dune buggy association, who participated in a beach cleanup and said 99 percent of the trash they picked up was abandoned water bottles.


“Beer and going to the beach go together like peanut butter and jelly, but they were not picking up beer cans,” Peake said.


Though a bottle bill expansion cleared the Senate on a voice vote last session, it has never passed the House and never gone to a recorded vote. Keenan has previously voted against the measure.


“This is my last term, and this is probably one of the unfinished pieces of business that I don’t want to leave behind,” Keenan said.


Sierra Club Massachusetts Chapter lobbyist Phil Sego and MassPIRG Executive Director Janet Domenitz said the alternative proposed by Moore and Binienda is not a compromise.


“Senator Moore’s bill has been put out as a quote-unquote alternative, and it repeals the bottle bill. So if that’s someone’s idea of a conversation, then we’re not for it,” Domenitz said.


“We’d love to talk. We’ve had no communication from the opponents that they even want to talk, and we have been saying for – oh gosh – 12 years, ‘Let’s talk,’” Sego told the News Service.


Sego said he has spoken with Keenan a number of times, and said, “He has not indicated any movement towards a compromise . . . It would be great to get together with him, people on the other side of the table, other groups.”


Lawmakers are apprehensive about the ballot process, which has been used in years past as leverage and as legislating, creating both the law decriminalizing marijuana and establishing legal, medical marijuana.


“We’ve seen what happened with the medical marijuana, where you let that go to the ballot, and while I supported that concept, I think there were some issues in how that was implemented,” said Rep. Josh Cutler, a Duxbury Democrat.


“We are preparing to go to the ballot,” said Sego. He said if a bottle bill expansion becomes law in time, he believes he and others could convince the petitioners to withdraw the ballot initiative.


“Absent some action on our part before late June, early July, this question will go to the ballot,” said Rep. Jonathan Hecht, a Watertown Democrat, and the lead sponsor of a separate bill (H 2943) to expand the bottle deposit law. He said, “We’re all going to be asked by our voters to take a stand on this issue.”


END

03/06/2014


Serving the working press since 1910

http://www.statehousenews.com

Statement on the Bottle Bill Ballot Initiative Hearing


Statement from Janet Domenitz of MassPIRG regarding the Updated Bottle Bill Campaign:
Thursday, March 6, 2014
Today, the Joint Committee on Telecom, Utilities and Energy holds a hearing on one single piece of legislation: the Updated Bottle Bill, the proposal that would add the 5c deposit to beverages like water, iced teas, and sports drinks. Containers with a 5c deposit are recycled at a rate of 80%, while containers without a deposit are recycled at a rate of 23%.  The goal of updating the bottle bill is to reduce container litter and increase recycling.
Although this bill has been pending in the Legislature for over a decade, today’s hearing is specifically devoted to considering the Updated Bottle Bill initiative petition, which was circulated in the fall of 2013 and garnered over 130,000 signatures in less than seven weeks. The petition, similar to the legislation, gets its own hearing per the initiative and referendum process in the state’s Constitution. Meant to give legislators a ‘last chance’ to act before a petition is put on the ballot, proponents see today as a ‘first.’
“Although we have been before the Legislature lobbying for the Updated Bottle Bill for years, this is the first time we appear before this Committee with over 130,000 signatures from residents in each of the Commonwealth’s 351 cities and towns,” remarked Phil Sego of the Massachusetts Sierra Club. “This is a game changer.”
The 130,000 signatures placed the Bottle Bill Update at the top of a crowded field of petitions last fall, including a proposal to increase the minimum wage. Among the scores of groups and organizations which helped collect signatures were the League of Women Voters of Massachusetts, the Garden Club Federation of Massachusetts, the Emerald Necklace Conservancy, the Arborway Coalition, the West Boylston Solid Waste Action Team, the Environmental League of MA, and MASSPIRG.
“If the Legislature doesn’t move this bill along to the finish line, they will be snatching defeat from the jaws of victory,” said Janet Domenitz, Executive Director of MASSPIRG. “I think our coalition has now proven that the only thing more popular with the voters than the Updated Bottle Bill is motherhood and apple pie.” 
For more information-
Janet Domenitz, 617-292-4800, Janet.Domenitz@MASSPIRG.org
Phil Sego, 617-423-5775, Phil@SierraClubMass.or