Bottle Deposit Testimonies in the Nickel City

Bottle Deposit Testimonies in the Nickel City

State Environmental Conservation Committee Chair Antoine Thompson sponsors public hearing

Two years ago, we published a cover story about the Bigger Better Bottle Bill (BBBB) that began this way:

Did you know that three billion non-carbonated beverage containers are sold in New York State annually? Let’s conservatively estimate that each container is six inches tall. If you could balance all these water, juice, tea, coffee and sport drink containers end to end, you could stack them to the moon and still have nearly enough left over to wrap around the equator twice. Again, that’s only counting New York State, and over the course of only one year. Currently, less than one quarter of these are recycled. The rest make their way through the waste stream as litter, content for landfills or fuel for incinerators.

Since then, an updated Beverage Market Data Analysis by the Container Recycling Institute indicates a 50 percent increase in non-carbonated beverage sales in New York, bringing the figure past 4.6 million containers annually—enough to stack to the moon and back.

The measure, which has passed a few times in the State Assembly over the years, only to die on the Senate floor, is back again with more momentum than ever. In essence, the bill expands the existing nickel deposit on carbonated beverages to include the non-carbonated variety—a segment of the beverage market that grew 95 percent between 2000 and 2006.

Now, with New York State facing a monstrous deficit, bill supporters argue the measure could generate anywhere from $118 million to $218 million for the state next year, while cleaning the environment and encouraging green business. The bill includes incentives for collection centers. Last week, Connecticut passed a similar law.

This is the first time the common sense measure is being considered since the departure of Republican Senator Joseph Bruno, who was deeply beholden to soda and supermarket lobbyists. They call the bottle deposit a “tax,” but fall silent when asked to name another “tax” that is 100 percent refundable.

Consider this email sent nearly two years ago to some local bill opponents by attorney Steven W. Harris, of Featherstonhaugh, Wiley, Clyne & Cordo, LLP, a firm that lobbied against the bill back then:

As Yogi Berra once said…“it ain’t over ‘till its over”, but the Senate has officially rejected the Governor’s Expanded Bottle bill proposal during today’s negotiations. While I won’t say that it is impossible for it to resurrect itself in the next few hours, it is very unlikely that this will be discussed further. You can now all take a collective sigh of relief (or stop holding your breath). The governor will reintroduce this proposal as a Governor’s Program Bill so I will still be busy the rest of session. We can talk about what all this means in Florida in two weeks so see you all then!

He’s right. It ain’t over. This Friday, March 6, the new chair of the Senate Environmental Conservation Committee—Senator Antoine Thompson—has scheduled a public hearing on the BBBB at the Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society (25 Nottingham Court), 10am-12pm. Thompson, commenting just after a similar meeting in Albany on Wednesday, said, “The issue is at a critical juncture.” NYPIRG spokesperson Laura Haight, who also attended the hearing, said that more than thirty people spoke, stretching the two-hour session to more than three hours.

Anyone wishing to learn why container deposits are one of the most effective means of reducing litter, conserving resources, and promoting a green economy while pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into the struggling state economy—and why beverage makers, distributors, and retailers disagree—are encouraged to attend.

—buck quigley

Reader Comments

Anonymous Recycler
05 Mar 2009, 19:19

Kudos to the Democrats for giving the bill another chance at passage. Now if only we can get Artvoice on the recycling bandwagon too. I was at Chippewa Spot today around a quarter to one and got to observe the Artvoice delivery guy and his young helper (his son?) in action. Stacks of last week's papers were simply stuffed into the garbage cans outside of Spot! I think most of us are guilty of not recycling as much as we can, but recycling old newspapers is a pretty easy thing to do and there's really no good excuse I can think of for a progressive publication like Artvoice to simply throw out old newspapers into the trash, rather than recycle them. Come on Artvoice! Be a role model! If you're gonna talk the talk, then shouldn't you also walk the walk?

Buck Quigley
06 Mar 2009, 07:20

Dear Anonymous (if that is your real name),

Why didn't you have the courage to say something to the delivery guy as this travesty was taking place?

Thanks.

Anonymous Recycler
07 Mar 2009, 00:18

lol Oh come on! Of course it's my real name. My parents put a lot of thought into it.

What can I say? I didn't feel like picking a fight with someone who probably felt he was just doing his job the way he's supposed to. Would giving him grief have solved the problem? I suspect not. So instead I now bestow my grievance upon you (representative of Artvoice) and pass the buck to Buck, so to speak.

Buck Quigley
07 Mar 2009, 08:05

Anonymous,

Your claim has been passed on to our distribution department. Each week, our delivery people recycle left over issues, either at recycling dumpsters along their routes, or by bringing them back to our warehouse. From our warehouse, roughly a pick-up truck full of left overs makes its way to the recycling center weekly. We also print on recycled paper and use water-based dyes.

As for your reluctance to share your identity, what are you, a superhero? Come on Bruce! Gotham City is hurting and all you can do is tap away on a blog after you witness something? Please, put your cape on and get involved. We need you.

I can't do it all here from the Daily Planet.

Thanks.

John Q Blogger
07 Mar 2009, 14:21

Yesterday I attended the hearing about the bigger and better bottle bill. The amount of spoken corporate disinformation at that hearing was like what we heard in defense of invading Iraq. These following observations need to be considered.

Who was that last, so called expert, out of state speaker who was spreading this outrageous disinformation? This fellow said that recycling centers on the borders of our state would be ripped off by out of staters redeeming bottles with no deposits on them. What hogwash!

Just anyone here in WNY try to process at any Tops Super Market a bottle through the deposit machine with a Canadian or non deposit label on the bottle.

What planet does Frank Mesiah live on? Yesterday Mesiah said that putting deposits on bottled water and juice containers would harm the poor? There are many lower income earning people in Buffalo making money off collecting discarded bottles in the streets and from garbage totes. We see them every week going up and down the East and West side neighborhoods. Maybe Frank needs glasses. Bottles with deposits are not a tax on consumers of beverages when one makes the effort to take them back and reclaim the deposit at the store. I'm sorry but bottle deposits are neither harming the poor or the tax payer. The proof is that many poor people in Buffalo make money on collecting discarded plastic bottles and a bigger and better bottle bill will increase their stream of income too.

The meeting was packed with beverage workers holding signs saying, "don't take away my job." Nobody is taking away jobs by putting a deposit on water and juice bottles. Instead a bigger and better bottle bill will create more jobs. Some of us were wondering why these sign carriers were not at work on that day. Were they paid by the bottling industry to come protest against something that is progressive and pro worker and consumer?

Another significant matter that needs to be discussed here is how the handing over of city owned water systems to private corporations has not lowered water costs for citizens. To and make water into a corporate commodity instead of a necessity is the prime factor that harms poor people around the world. To take water out of the hands of governments that supply it to the public is not about efficiency but about exploitation of people. This idea is the same flawed idea that came from the Bush government that wanted to take social security money and give it to citizens to invest in the stock market. Imagine the damage that would have been inflicted if that proposal had happened.

We have gone through eight terrible years of the Bush Administration that has damaged our countries economy and environment in countless ways. The Pacific ocean has a gigantic area filled with plastic bottles and other plastic trash that comes off of the continents from rivers. A few years ago Jean Michel Cousteau sounded the alarm when speaking at the University of Buffalo about the substantial harm that plastic products are now doing to an expansive part of the largest ocean on our planet. In addition we are filling our land fills with plastic containers at an unprecedented rate and that is wasteful use of tax payers money.

It takes over 80 years for a plastic bottle to degrade but plastics do not really bio degrade but become smaller bit of plastics that get into the animals and water we consume. To place a deposit on all plastic bottles is the best incentive to get people to take back the bottles they bought from a market where they bought the product instead of throwing it in the trash or on the ground.

Gilbert
23 Aug 2009, 13:36

were r certain places were u cn deposit the 2 liter bottles with the nickel from soda cans because i heard when u fill one up u get 100.00 dollars for it is this true or what.... and if it is were can we take it .....

Bottle Deposit Testimonies in the Nickel City

Reader Comments

Artvoice Links

Search Artvoice

Share

Subscribe