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Pass the ‘bottle bill9
Virginians discard about three billion bottles and cans a year.
Wherever the containers end up - whether on the roadside or in landfills — is a shameful, deplorable waste.
Nine states — states like New York and Vermont where the legislators have acted with wisdom and courage — passed bills requiring placement of a 5 or 10 cent refundable deposit on beverage containers.
Legislators in these states have stuck up for what is right and have opposed the formidable lobbying effort of the container manufacturing industry.
An 80 percent drop in beverage container litter has resulted in these states.
Not many people throw nickels or dimes out the car window. Nor do they throw money in the trash. By placing this refundable deposit on containers, there is an immediate and forceful incentive for people to return the containers to a store or beverage recycling center.
Carelessly strewn beverage Containers — found alon& the roads, in the woods, in our parks and waterways — are^uickly picked up when there is a reward for the labor.
In Rappahannock County, tourism is a vital component of our economy. We are visited because of the county’s beauty.
Our striking scenery is, however, marred by littered containers. Take a drive along any road in this county and you will invariably see the ugly sight.
By weight and volume, beverage containers comprise 40 to 60 percent of raodside litter. In the parks, the situation is much worse — such containers represent fully 60 to 80 percent of the litter.
Virginia has depended on a public education effort to reduce litter. The state also assesses fines on people who improperly discard containers. But these measures, possibly well-intentioned — or possibly just a sad resignation to the lobbying efforts of the beverage container manufacturers — have not worked. Go up into any hollow in the county and you’ll see what we mean.
Picking up this trash, when it is picked up, costs the state about $10 million a year. As solid waste in our landfills, we can add another $7 million that it costs Virginians — and these landfills are filling up. In many localities throughout Virgina the shortage of available landfills is creating a near-panic situation. It is obvious that the life of a landfill is lengthened when beverage containers are not added to them.
When bottles and cans are returned for deposit they are recycled. Recycling aluminum cans results in a 95 percent reduction of the energy used to make them from raw materials. Glass containers are simply sterilized and re-filled. When a bottle has reached the end of its life, it is melted back into glass — this, too, saves energy by reducing the temperature of the smelters. In the glass and container manufacturing industries some jobs will invariably be lost. But other jobs are created when a bottle bill is passed —jobs in the beverage, retail, transportation and recycling industries. In all, more jobs are created by a bottle bill than are lost.
If you are among the 75.9 percent of Virginians who support this bill (according to a recent Gallup poll), we urge you to immediately write your representatives in Richmond — tell them you want the bottle bill passed in this session of the Virginia General Assembly.
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