This is great news! I wonder what the motivating factor was for the
paper to take this stand? Especially in the headquarters city of Coke,
this seems like a very progressive stand for a newspaper.
I may be able to use this as our state looks to upgrading its solid
waste program.
Thanks for sharing this.
John
> From: jennie.alvernaz@sfsierra.sierraclub.org
> Date: Sun, 15 Dec 96 17:28:28 PST
> To: GreenYes@UCSD.EDU
> Subject: A 10-CENT INCENTIVE TO RECYCLE
> As most of you on this list know, Coca-Cola has been a leader nationally
> in attempts to defeat product responsibility legislation in the form of
> bottle-deposit legislation, through direct political action and through
> sponsorship of Keep America Beautiful and its many local and state
> affiliates funded with taxpayer dollars. Recently Coke CEO Robert
> Goizueta boasted that his corporation sells almost a billion containers
> of soda every day, world wide. Therefore, you may be interested
> that our major newspaper (circulation 1.5 million) today endorsed a bottle
> bill for Georgia.
>
> Atlanta Journal-Constitution editorial, Sunday, December 15, 1996:
>
> A 10-CENT INCENTIVE TO RECYCLE
>
> One of the first signs that American attitudes toward the
> environment were changing came in the mid-1960s, with the anti-
> litter campaign begun by first lady Lady Bird Johnson. Millions of
> Americans enlisted in a crusade to eliminate the trash -- beer cans,
> bottles, paper bags -- that disfigured the otherwise beautiful
> countryside.
>
> Unfortunately, a glance along Georgia's roads and highways will
> tell you that 30 years later, the battle is far from won. But
> reinforcement may be on the way from a Senate study committee,
> which has been holding hearings around the state on recycling and
> solid waste issues.
>
> The committee has been wrestling with the question of how to
> reduce the amount of recyclable material still making its way into
> Georgia's landfills. In 1992, the state gave local governments four
> years to reduce the amount of trash put into landfills by 25 percent.
> That deadline has passed, and most local governments have come
> nowhere near that goal. In many cases the amount of trash being
> put into landfills actually increased.
>
> Among the ideas suggested to the committee to address the
> problem is a bottle-deposit bill. In the 10 states that have adopted
> such programs, more than 80 percent of glass, aluminum and
> plastic beverage containers are now recycled instead of ending up
> in landfills or along the highway.
>
> We have tried a moral approach to the problem, with endless
> preaching that it is wrong to litter and it is responsible to recycle.
> We have tried the legal approach as well, creating fines for littering
> and trying to push citizens into recycling. Both efforts have been
> successful, but only to a point.
>
> By putting a refundable deposit of a nickle or dime on each
> container, we create an economic incentive that in turn produces an
> environmentally responsible outcome. The profit motive, after all,
> is usually more effective at changing behavior than are sermons or
> poorly enforced laws.
>
> The study committee chairwoman, state Sen. Donzella James (D-
> College Park), to her credit, is considering a bill for the next session
> of the Legislature that would give Georgia an effective bottle-
> deposit program. The committee's final meeting is scheduled for
> Monday at 6 p.m. in Room 307 of the Legislative Office Building in
> Atlanta.
>
> Opponents of the bottle-deposit program are already organizing
> against it. If the proposal is to have a chance, those who support
> the idea also need to make their opinion known.
>
>