Expanding the Massachusetts bottle bill (“Consider This: It’s Time to Expand the Bottle Bill,” Feb.14) is one of the most effective measures we can take to ratchet up recycling and choke off the amount of plastic, aluminum, and glass that ends up in landfills.
We need to do it for the refreshingly positive near-term benefits it can bring. But we need to do it even more for the longer-term, game-changing potential it offers.
The evidence of near-term benefits is clear. Bottle deposits give us, as consumers, an incentive to recycle. And that makes a difference. Less litter. Less product in landfills. Lower fees for our towns to pay to handle our recyclables.
But the real power to an invigorated bottle bill is that it ensures that not just consumers, but manufacturers, bottlers, and distributors have an incentive to do the right thing.
When consumers take our bottles to redemption centers to collect our refunds, it is the manufacturers who are responsible—in various ways—for disposing of those returned products. And that’s the key.
Until the producers, bottlers, and distributors of products which contribute so mightily to the planet’s waste have to contend with the end-life of their products—in fact, until contending with their products’ end-life is a major component of their viability—these companies have no reason to pursue major innovations in their materials or their practices. And we need major innovations. Expanding container deposit legislation is our best tool to make this happen.
Jane Biering
Littleton County Road
