Hitting the Bottle
It’s interesting what causes people get behind. Some of us get behind guns or property rights. Others try to tackle litter. Seen at the RTB page, comes the Tennessee Bottle Bill. Took some surfing to get to what they’re trying to do but apparently it’s to pass this bill (bottom right side of page) to combat litter. What the bill does:
* Allocates $10 million of the unclaimed deposits to the County Litter Grants, thus ensuring continued funding (actually doubled funding) for Tennessee’s existing “comprehensive litter program” as well as continued funding for Keep Amerca Beautiful affiliates across the state.
* Sets a container handling fee (paid by the beverage distributors) of 3¢. This fee not only pays all costs of operating the program; it also creates sufficient incentive for small business owners to open independent redemption centers, thus minimizing the impact on grocery stores.
* Increases the maximum container size to 2 liters, assuring maximum redemptions without including hard-to-handle gallon- size jugs.
* Authorizes the use of satellite drop-off sites in conjunction with a centralized processing facility. Such systems use electronic “customer courtesy cards,” handheld scanners, bar-coded labels, computerized processing machines and electronic funds transfers to make the redemption process as quick and convenient as possible.
* Authorizes the use of mobile redemption centers, making it possible for the elderly and house-bound to get their containers recycled, as well as providing regular or one-time serivce to businesses, schools and special events.
I think subsidizing an industry (and that’s what this does) can’t be good for the industry. And, of course, littering is illegal.
March 29th, 2006 at 1:34 pm
Yet another “to benefit society” tax…
March 29th, 2006 at 2:48 pm
The Slantinel is deluged with letters-to-the-editor in this vein. Not surprisingly, most are moved here recently from out of state and can’t wait to tell us just how nice it was up there because of nanny-state crap like this.
March 29th, 2006 at 11:21 pm
[…] Say Uncle has a good post on the bottle bill. Check it out. I’m all for this bill…well, I’m all for keeping it up north. I hope my legislators don’t vote for it. Didn’t Lamar Alexander stop this legislation once before when he was Governor? […]
March 30th, 2006 at 11:08 am
I’d like to fight litter. Let’s start by making it legal for me to kick the crap out of the teenage bastards that keep throwing their trash into my lawn as they walk home from the 7-11 on the corner.
Or better yet, make it legal for me to return the litter to it’s rightful owner. I could collect the litter for a month or so and then dump it in the lawns of the worst offenders parents in order to demonstrate how frustrating it is.
I guess I should have known better than to buy a house a block and a half from a 7-11.
March 30th, 2006 at 12:55 pm
What industry is this subsidizing? Seems to me it’s the exact opposite of a subsidy.
March 30th, 2006 at 12:56 pm
Looks to me like it will be creating and industry. But you’re right that it’s definitely not subsidizing those who make bottles.
March 31st, 2006 at 11:01 am
This bill is not a subsidy, but a way to deal with the externality of litter.
For more information about this bill check out these sites:
The Bottle Bill Blog
Container Recycling Institute
The Tennessee Bottle Bill Blog
TNBottleBill.Org
Eric Durland