MA bottle bill supporters change tack

MA bottle bill supporters change tack

By Editorial Staff, Resource Recycling

A coalition of environmental groups pushing for an expanded bottle bill in Massachusetts will abandon plans to accomplish its long-sought aim through a ballot initiative, and will instead focus its efforts on swaying the legislature to pass an update that has been languishing in committee since the summer.

Advocates of expanding the commonwealth's three-decade-old bottle bill after 16 years of trying, were heartened last July when a legislative committee [1] held a hearing on legislation that would change Massachusetts' container deposit system to include almost all non-carbonated beverages. However, after little movement on the legislation, the bottle bill boosters began laying the groundwork to take their case directly to the voters [2] through a ballot measure.

Last week, the coalition changed course and announced that it would stop collecting signatures for the ballot measure in favor of focusing its efforts on the legislature, claiming that a majority of law makers support an updated bottle bill. Governor Deval Patrick has also come out in favor of the move, as has state Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Ken Kimmell.

"We are grateful for the overwhelming support of the public, a recent MassINC Polling Group poll showed 77 percent of the public in favor of the bill, as well as the support of municipal leaders from 200 cities and towns across the Commonwealth, including Boston's Mayor Menino," said James McCaffrey, director of Sierra Club of Massachusetts, in a prepared statement. "On July 20, over 300 people trekked to a public hearing to support the bill in the State House. Given this mandate both inside and outside the State House, we now believe the best strategy to update the most successful recycling program in the state is in the legislature."

However, Christopher Flynn, president of the Massachusetts Food Association, told the State House News Service via masslive.com [3] that given lawmakers' past reluctance to pass an updated bottle bill, he's confident they won't change course this time around. He also told the news service that his association's polling has found that consumers want the overall recycling infrastructure built up, particularly single-stream collection. The association has been pushing for an expansion of curbside recycling collection over an expansion of the bottle bill.

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