Attached are some notes on the Bottle Bill that I used recently to address
some of the inaccuracies presented by the other side.  I hope you find
these
helpful when talking to legislators and others.

Garth Frable
Iowa Recycling Association

[I have shortened this by eliminating Garth's notes on the Increase in the
Handling Fee.  If you would like to see those notes, let me know.  Jane
Clark at [log in to unmask]]
=================================================

Myth
Bottle Bills Hurt Or Compete With Curbside Programs and Other Recycling
Programs

False

Iowa has the 5th highest number of curbside programs in the nation.
Iowa's recycling rate is within the top ten in the nation.
Of the ten states with the highest recycling rates, six are bottle bill
states.
States with bottle bills have higher participation rates in their local
curbside and dropoff recycling programs.
The City of Seattle Solid Waste Utility staff studied the potential impact
of a bottle bill on Seattle's curbside program and concluded, "the bottle
bill would increase recycling levels of beverage containers and reduce the
City's overall solid waste management system costs."
The increase in the handling fee will mean that many more publicly and
privately owned recycling centers can get into the redemption businesses
and/or the processing of the containers collected.
Most of the beverage containers are consumed away from home.  Please
remember that these beverages are packaged for convenience, are generally
for single serve consumption, and are consumed in minutes not hours, days,
or weeks.  Most of us do not take a jar of mayonnaise in the car with us
and polish it off in one sitting.


Myth
Bottle Bills Are Only About Recycling

False

Bottle deposits are first and foremost about litter control.  Bottle bills
have also had numerous unexpected benefits including increased recycling,
job creation (including that in sheltered workshops), fund raising
opportunities for schools and youth groups, and increased pride in our
state.
The Solid Waste Coordinators of Kentucky (this is essentially the ISOSWO of
Kentucky) conducted a litter survey in May of 1999 and found that 48
percent of the litter is beverage containers.
Bottles and cans are not biodegradable and can cause significant damage to
mowing machines.
The proposed expansion includes up to $6 million dollars to improve
redemption as well as support local litter and recycling initiatives.
It has been argued that Iowa is focusing a small percent of the waste and
litter stream.  Please note that the tonnage handled through the bottle
bill is more than all the waste tires generated in Iowa annually (1 per
person).  I think we would all be satisfied with a waste tire program that
successfully recovered more than 90 percent of tires without tax dollars
involved.

Myth
Bottle Bills Are Inconvenient To Iowans

False

More than 85 percent of Iowans support the bottle bill.
Close to 75 percent want to see it expanded.
The opponents argue that carrying all these empties back will be
burdensome.  They never explain how those who have gotten the full
containers home from the store are suddenly in peril when the containers
are empty.

Myth
The Average Cost Of Handling Each Container Under The Expansion Will Be 12
Cents Or More

False

This number is from a study paid for by the beverage industry in
Massachusetts.  The Massachusetts Public Interest Research Group described
the data in this study as "at best exaggerated and at worst simply
misleading."  Massachusetts's bill does not currently include wine and
liquor as Iowa's bill does.
Maine has an expanded bottle bill.  Redemption centers are paid 3 cents to
handle and sort containers.  Under the 12 cent cost estimate presented,
these redemption centers are losing 9 cents per container, and yet there
are 350 redemption centers in Maine compared to fewer than 110 in Iowa.
There will be additional sorts necessary for various brands.  However, the
majority of the containers are controlled by Coke and Pepsi.  For example,
Coke owns Minute Maid juices and Dasani water.  Pepsi owns Tropicana juices
and Aquafina.  Aquafina has the largest share of the bottled water market.
Pepsi now has more than 80 percent of the sports drink market with its
recent purchase of Quaker Oats and Gatorade.  In fact, Pepsi alone will
have a full 25% share of the expanding non-carbonated beverage sector when
it adds Gatorade, the No 1 sports drink to its non-carbonated roster of
recently purchased SoBe drinks, Tropicana juices, bottled teas, and fast
growing Aquafina water.
In Maine, many grocers sort by only material type (glass, plastic, and
aluminum) and one of the 350 redemption centers does the refined sort by
distributor.  Some grocery stores in Iowa already have such a relationship
with their local redemption center.
Where there are reverse vending machines, the machine would only need to be
programmed to read the additional container types.
A conservative estimate is that redemption centers in Iowa handle
approximately one-third or 400 million of the containers redeemed annually
in Iowa.  The proposed expansion will cover approximately 300 million
containers (270 million containers assuming a 90 percent redemption rate).
If the handling fee is not increased and most of the redemption centers
close, grocery stores will handle an additional 400 million containers
annually.  It seems contradictory for the grocery industry to oppose the
expansion of containers covered by the bottle bill because of space
concerns and then oppose the one cent increase in the handling fee when
such opposition will result in 400 million more containers in their stores.

Myth
Products Will Be Driven Off The Shelf If They Are Included In The Bottle
Bill Update

False

The Massachusetts Public Interest Research Group describes the claim that
products were driven from the shelves in Maine as "patently untrue."
Please remember that the same argument was used when the bottle bill was
originally passed but related to beer and soft drinks.  However, the
diversity of beer brands and the proliferation of the microbrewery
businesses over the past 20 years should discredit any such argument.
Currently, for example, in central Iowa 12 different "non franchise"
beverages are successfully handled through one third party contract.

Myth
Handling Additional Glass Through The Bottle Bill Will Be Dangerous To The
Consumer

False

It is interesting that this concern does not apply when the container is
full only when it is empty.
A study in the American Journal of Public Health concluded that the
implementation of a bottle bill in Massachusetts resulted in a 60 percent
drop in glass-related lacerations especially among children.  Far from
increasing injuries, bottle bills significantly reduce them.

Myth
There Is No Effort To Repeal The Bottle Bill

False

There is correspondence describing the efforts underway to repeal the
Bottle Bill.
There has also been much made of the fact that no new bottle bills have
been passed recently.  It should be noted that last year California
expanded its bottle bill.  The reality is that large sums of money have
been spent by the soft drink and grocery industry to defeat any new or
expanded bottle bills, usually while still in committee.  The same is
obviously being attempted in Iowa.  The numbers are staggering:  In 1996 in
Oregon, for example, opponents of the bottle bill expansion spent $3.3
million to defeat - they outspent supporters 11 to 1.  In 1987, the
beverage industry spent $2.3 million in Washington to defeat a bottle bill
effort there.  Similar amounts were spent in Kentucky last year to defeat a
bottle bill proposal there.


In conclusion, Iowa's Bottle Bill is about pride in our state.  It puts
responsibility on the producer, retailer, and consumer of the products in
question.

In 22 years, the grocery industry has figured out how to put banks, dry
cleaners, photo labs, pharmacies, restaurants, and post offices, among
other services in their stores.  I argue that if the industry can adapt to
these changes it can adapt to an expanded bottle bill.

The expanded bottle bill is supported by the majority of Iowans and by such
groups as the Izaak Walton League; Iowa State Association of Counties ;
Iowa League of Cities; Iowa League of Women Voters; Iowa Environmental
Council; Iowa Recycling Association; Iowa Sierra Club; Iowa Audubon; Iowa
Association of County Conservation Boards; Iowa Conservation Education
Council; Ecumenical Ministries of Iowa; Iowa United Methodist Church, and
the Iowa Wildlife Federation to name a few.

More than 44,000 signatures have been collected so far to update the bottle
bill.  I believe the opinions of these people matter.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
For SC email list T-and-C, send: GET TERMS-AND-CONDITIONS.CURRENT
to [log in to unmask]