[greenyes] Bottle Bill Expansion amendment rejected in Massachusetts Senate

[Jenny Gitlitz <jenny.gitlitz@no.address>]

From today's Berkshire Eagle:
<http://www.berkshireeagle.com/Stories/0,1413,101~7514~1424210,00.html>

"The Senate also rejected a Nuciforo plan to expand the Bottle Bill so that
noncarbonated beverages, such as bottled water and sports drinks, would
require a 5-cent deposit. North Shore senators said they were concerned that
the plan would hurt businesses in their districts because people from New
Hampshire would illegally redeem containers they didn't purchase in
Massachusetts."

The rejection came late in the night, following several weeks of intensive
lobbying by CRI, MassPIRG, and the Sierra Club.

Unfortunately, border senators were not convinced by our plan to head off
fraud issues by inserting a clause into the amendment that would have
required the EOEA to convene a multistakeholder task force to study fraud,
and to issue regulations within 6 months to prevent it.

Sen. Nuciforo has said he will now offer the same language as a legislative
bill.  

Clearly, we need to do a better job addressing the border issue.  One tactic
is to remind people that New Hampshire does not have its own bottle bill
precisely because the beverage and retail industries have lobbied so
aggressively against it there, for more than two decades.  Another is to
bring in state officials from Maine to describe their multi-stakeholder
efforts to address fraud.  (And of course a national bottle bill would make
all of this moot, but that is for another day.)

GreenYessers, feel free to forward more suggestions.

Thank you to all who called or wrote your senators in support of this
amendment.

Stay tuned.

--Jenny

Jennifer Gitlitz
Research Director, Container Recycling Institute

Home Office:
2 Pomeroy Ave.
Dalton, MA 01226
Tel. (413) 684-4746 eFax: (928) 833-0460
Email: jgitlitz@no.address

Container Recycling Institute headquarters:
1911 N. Ft. Myer Dr. #702
Arlington, VA 22209-1603
Tel. (703) 276-9800
Fax: (703) 276-9587
www.container-recycling.org
www.bottlebill.org