[GreenYes] NEW YORK'S BOTTLE BILL TURNS '20'

["Pat Franklin" <pfranklin@container-recycling.org>]

MY APOLOGIES TO THOSE WHO MAY RECEIVE THIS EMAIL TWICE!
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		Container Recycling Institute
		1911 Ft. Myer Drive, Suite 702
		Arlington, Virginia    22209



EMBARGOED UNTIL			CONTACT:	Pat Franklin, 703/276-9800
12 noon on June 15, 2002 			Executive Director

		NEW YORK’S BOTTLE BILL TURNS ‘20’

Policymakers and activists pursue ‘BIGGER and BETTER’ bill


WASHINTON, DC  (June 15, 2002) – New York State's bottle bill is
responsible for recycling more than 70 billion beverage cans and
bottles since Governor Hugh Cary signed the bill into law 20
years ago.  Now bottle bill supporters want to make it bigger
and better.

Today, a coalition of the state’s leading environmental
organizations will be joined by elected officials at news
conferences and events around the state commemorating the 20th
anniversary of the bill’s enactment.  Advocates want the state
legislature to expand the law to include non-carbonated beverages
like bottled water, juice drinks, sports drinks, and teas that
didn’t exist 20 years ago, and to take the unclaimed deposits
back from distributors and use them to support recycling
programs.

“Our 20-year-old bottle bill has been a phenomenal success at
keeping millions of containers out of landfills and incinerators
and off the streets in the form of roadside litter,” said
Attorney General Eliot Spitzer.  “However, the bottle bill can
be made even better if we update it to include categories of
containers – like bottled waters, sports drinks and fruit
juices – that barely existed in the marketplace when the law
was enacted twenty years ago.”

Maine and California have updated their laws to include
beverages that have come on the market in the past 10 or 15
years.  Other bottle bill states have tried to do the same,
but according to the Container Recycling Institute's (CRI)
executive director Pat Franklin, “the politically powerful
beverage industry, led by Coke, Pepsi and Anheuser-Busch,
has massively outspent bottle bill proponents to defeat
expansion legislation and ballot initiatives in Oregon,
Massachusetts, Vermont and Iowa.”

Franklin believes the tide may be changing in favor of bottle
bill advocates.  CRI’s research shows that beverage container
waste is growing, increasing 50 percent between 1992 and 1999,
and that recycling rates nationwide are falling.  “With more
and more government officials calling on industry to take
responsibility for its product and packaging waste,” said
Franklin, “the time may be right for a bigger, better bottle
bill in New York and elsewhere."

 According to CRI, dozens of bottle bills were introduced in
state legislatures this year, and a hearing on Sen. Jim Jeffords'
(I-VT) National Beverage Producer Responsibility Act of 2002
will be held in July.  On April 30, the Hawaii legislature passed
 the first new state bottle bill in 16 years.  Hawaii Governor
Benjamin J. Cayetano is expected to sign the bill into law by
June 30th.

Attached is a fact sheet by CRI detailing the effectiveness of
the New York State ‘bottle bill’.  CRI is a nonprofit research
and public education organization that studies container and
packaging issues, and advocates policies that reduce packaging
waste.

					# # #
****************************************
Patricia Franklin
Executive Director
Container Recycling Institute
1911 N. Fort Myer Drive, Ste. 702
Arlington, VA 22209

TEL:   703.276.9800
FAX:   703.276.9587
EMAIL: pfranklin@container-recycling.org

http://www.container-recycling.org
http://www.bottlebill.info
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