[GreenYes] NYT Letter to Editor Supports Bottle Bill Expansion

[lkingeco2@aol.com]

To Greenyes,

The New York Times published a letter to the editor today urging expansion of the state beverage container deposit system. In a mere 142 words, Fredrica Rudell of Iona College makes a good point.  Text follows:

New York Times
Letter to the Editor

When Recycling Stops
To the Editor:
    Regarding Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's proposal to suspend the recycling of cans and bottles, John Tierney chides environmentalists for their advocacy of what turns out to be an uneconomical practice (Big City column, Feb. 15).  The solution is simple, and we need not wait for robots to sift our trash.
    The easiest way to reduce the number of bottles and cans that enter our waste stream is to amend the New York State law that mandates a 5-cent deposit on carbonated beverage containers and exempts all others.  A company like PepsiCo uses the plastic bottle for soda and water; why should one be worth returning to the store, and the other become a burden to the taxpayer?
    I hope that if recycling pickups end, Mayor Bloomberg will pressure Albany to update state law regarding deposit containers to reflect our beverage consumption habits.

                                                                                     FREDRICA RUDELL
                                                                   New Rochelle, N.Y., Feb. 15, 2002
The writer is chairwoman of the department of marketing and international business, Iona College.