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Click here to learn more about The Tennessee
Bottle Bill.
Container deposit laws are
bottle and can recycling programs.
Bottles and cans represent about 5% of the municipal solid waste stream.
According to national studies, bottles and cans represent about 8% of
roadside litter.
The National Recycling Coalition reports in its Beverage Packaging
Environment Council study that 5% of beverages are consumed in cars.
87% are consumed in homes, offices and restaurants.
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Keep Knoxville Beautiful and The
Tennessee Bottle Bill
For the past several years several citizens groups and
legislators have attempted to pass container deposit legislation in Tennessee.
The public debate has focused on the bottle bill as a litter control mechanism
and also its impact on recycling.
Because of our work in litter prevention and cleanup and our interest in
increasing rates of recycling, Keep Knoxville Beautiful
has recently been drawn into the public debate. Our interest in the public
debate centers on claims by bill supporters about the effect of the law on
controlling roadside litter and the overall impact of the bill on recycling
efforts by citizens, business and government.
Keep Knoxville Beautiful Tennessee Bottle Bill
Blog Entries:
April 12, 2005, KKB director comments on News Sentinel
article about the bottle bill.
October 30, 2005, KKB
director letter To The Editor reveals details of proposed bill.
November 10, 2005, Keep
Knoxville Beautiful briefs grocers on local & national litter studies.
November 13, 2005,
letter from Maryville to News Sentinel urges caution on bottle bill.
November 30, 2005, Tom
Salter and Rep. Russell Johnson debate bill on "The Phil Show".
December 12, 2005, News
Sentinel article questions bottle bill study results.
January 13, 2006,
Beverage containers and recycling overview, trends and data.
February 2, 2006, KKB board discusses bottle
bill issues.
February 9, 2006, KKB bottle bill speech and
PowerPoint presentation.
March 5,
2006, Tom Salter responds to bottle bill Op-Ed in News Sentinel.
Keep Knoxville Beautiful Board Statement on
the Proposed Tennessee Bottle Bill
The Board of Directors of Keep Knoxville Beautiful discussed bottle bill
issues at its February 2006 board meeting.
Click here
to see a summary of the issues discussed. The board voted to take a formal
public position on the legislation after circulating sample language by email
for comment and editing. At the present time there are 27 board members
requiring a vote of 14 to approve the statement. The board decided to
comment publicly on the issues of litter and recycling - these are related to
our mission. The board elected to not comment publicly on the other
related issues they considered. Here are the two statements and the voting
outcome:
Statement
#1: Regarding the Proposed Tennessee Bottle Bill as a Litter
Control Mechanism
Litter is a serious problem in our community, region and state. Keep
Knoxville Beautiful supports a comprehensive approach to litter
control including public education, litter cleanups and strict
enforcement of litter ordinances. Litter is not “caused” by fast
food packaging, beverage containers or any other type of material.
Litter is caused by people mishandling waste and comes from a
variety of sources such as motorists, unsecured trash containers and
uncovered truckloads. According to numerous national studies
conducted by solid waste experts the percentage of beverage
containers in litter is about 8%. Keep Knoxville Beautiful litter
audits put the percentage of bottles and cans at about 27%. The
proposed bottle bill will not be a magic bullet to fix Tennessee’s
litter problem because most litter will not be addressed by the
legislation.
Therefore, it is the position of the Board of Directors of Keep
Knoxville Beautiful that the proposed Tennessee Bottle Bill will not
be an effective litter control mechanism and should not be relied
upon by the citizens of Tennessee to have a significant impact on
roadside litter in our State. The proposed Tennessee Bottle Bill
should be rejected in favor of comprehensive approaches to litter
control. (Adopted by the Board of Directors in February 2006
by a vote of 16 to 2).
Statement #2:
Regarding the
Proposed Tennessee Bottle Bill as a Recycling Mechanism
Recycling makes good economic sense, saves energy and conserves
natural resources. More needs to be done to encourage private
citizens, business and government to recycle more. According to the
Environmental Protection Agency beverage containers make up about 5%
of all waste produced by our society. Most recyclable waste consists
of paper (35.2%), organics (29.6% wood, yard trimmings and food
waste) followed by metal, plastic, glass and other material.
Recycling programs include curbside pickup, drop-off centers,
buy-back centers and deposit-refund systems. The proposed Tennessee
Bottle Bill focuses only on a tiny portion of the waste stream
utilizing a drop-off center approach encouraged by a deposit refund.
Everyone agrees these programs greatly increase container recycling,
but that is all they do. Bottles and cans make up too little of the
waste stream for the legislation to have a major impact on overall
recycling rates in Tennessee. Ninety-five percent of the recyclable
material generated at our homes and workplaces will not be collected
under a bottle bill.
Therefore, it is the position of the Board of Directors of Keep
Knoxville Beautiful that the proposed Tennessee Bottle Bill is
focused on too little of the waste stream to have a significant
impact on recycling rates in Tennessee. The Tennessee Bottle Bill
should be rejected and other approaches should be considered to
dramatically increase recycling of all types of materials. (Adopted
by the Board of Directors in February 2006 by a vote of 17 to 1). |
Bottle Bills and Recycling
A major concern about container deposit programs is that they set up parallel
waste disposal systems. While efficiency is best served when recyclable
material is collected at one location such as your home or a municipal drop-off
center and transported in one trip to a recycled material processing center, the
bottle bill is NOT designed to do that. Look at these two graphics and
consider the implications:
Under a bottle bill system you would take your bottle bill items to a drop-off
center for a deposit refund. The proposed Tennessee program targets soft
drinks, juice, water, beer and sports drinks. Items like glass food jars or wine
bottles would not be included. Liquor bottles and any dairy containers are
excluded too. If you want to recycle non-bottle bill items you will have
to use another system like curbside or a different drop-off facility. It
is certainly possible that bottle bill redemption centers may opt to take other
types of material, but the legislation does not require it. You don't have
to be a rocket scientist to figure out the inherent inefficiency of this
approach. Many mainstream recyclers promote the concept of single-stream
recycling. Single-stream collects all recyclable material at one time in
one container or truck. There is a reluctance to openly criticize
container deposit programs because such comments can be perceived as being
"against recycling" or worse "anti-environment". However, professional
recyclers are concerned about efficiency (after all, recycling is a business)
and having duplicate systems is a waste of land, fuel, equipment and personnel
on the part of the recycling companies and a duplication of effort on the part
of citizens who participate in recycling programs.
Is There Something Better Out There?
The answer is yes. KKB would like to encourage a public discussion of
shifting our entire solid waste management system in Tennessee to a
pay-as-you-throw program.
Learn
more about PAYT by clicking here. PAYT has high rates of
recycling of all types of material, typically includes roll-backs of local
taxes assessed for solid waste disposal and is inherently fair because citizens only
pay for what they send to a landfill. Disposing of recycled material is
free or very cheap. The best part is that most PAYT systems pick up trash
and recyclables at your door. According to the EPA website (link above)
about PAYT, more than 4,000 local communities are using "unit-based" disposal or
PAYT systems.
So, What is Next?
If we are thinking of implementing a state-mandated recycling program under the
bottle bill, why not pause for a while and look at the impact of implementing
something better? Talk to your friends and legislators about this idea.
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