Did you know that on November 4th you will be asked to vote on the Updated Bottle Bill?
What is The Bottle Bill:
The Bottle Bill is the nickel deposit on beverage containers. It has been in effect since 1982, and has become a model for other states and countries around the world to help cope with the large amounts of litter and waste created by the bottling industry. Since the Massachusetts Bottle Bill became law in 1982, dramatic changes have occurred in the beverage market. Sales of “new” beverages such as juices, iced tea, sport drinks, and bottled water have vastly increased. Because the Bottle Bill does not yet cover these drinks, millions of these containers wind up as litter or in our landfills and incinerators, costing cities and towns money in expensive disposal fees. Advocates began urging the legislature to update the deposit law in 2000. Each year, under intense pressure by the beverage industry, the bill stalled. In the last few years, the State Senate successfully passed the bottle bill update, just to see the measure scuttled in the House. After careful consideration, the advocates decided to undertake the process to put the Bottle Bill Update on the 2014 ballot. They successfully fought off legal challenges from big business, and gathered the needed signatures to put the updated bottle bill on the November 4th ballot as a referendum question.
The Green Needham Collaborative has endorsed the Updated Bottle Bill and encourages you to support this measure by voting YES on Question #2 on the November Ballot. As a town, we are a model community for Recycling and we already recycle many more products than most communities. However, this bill is an important step towards standardizing the recycling of products currently not covered by the Bottle Bill of 1982. It would encourage recycling of water bottles, sports drinks, juice and tea bottles by requiring a deposit on those containers.
We see this bill as having two major benefits for Needham residents.
1. To reduce waste and energy consumption
2. As another step towards good stewardship of the environment and the planet. Plastic bottles are made of petroleum. It is estimated that the Updated Bottle Bill will save the equivalent of 6.2 million barrels of oil per year in the US through recycling efforts
Frequently Asked Questions:
Information Supporting the Updated Bottle Bill:
http://massbottlebill.org/wp/?page_id=38
Information Opposing the Updated Bottle Bill:
http://massbottlebill.org/wp/?page_id=94
The 209 Cities and Towns Currently Supporting the Updated Bottle Bill as of July 31, 2014:
Abington • Acton • Acushnet • Adams • Alford • Amherst • Andover • Aquinnah • Arlington • Ashburnham • Ashfield • Ayer • Barnstable • Barre • Becket • Bellingham • Berkley • Berlin • Bernardston • Beverly • Billerica • Blackstone • Blandford • Bolton • Boston • Bourne • Boxborough • Braintree • Brewster • Bridgewater • Brimfield • Brookfield • Brookline • Buckland • Burlington • Cambridge • Carlisle • Carver • Charlemont • Charlton • Chatham • Chester • Cohasset • Colrain • Concord • Conway • Cummington • Dalton • Dartmouth • Dedham • Dover • Dudley • Dunstable • Duxbury • East Brookfield • East Longmeadow • Eastham • Easthampton • Easton • Egremont • Erving • Everett • Fairhaven • Falmouth • Fitchburg • Foxborough • Gill • Grafton • Granby • Great Barrington • Greenfield • Hamilton • Hampden • Hanson • Harvard • Harwich • Hawley • Heath • Hingham • Holbrook • Holland • Holliston • Hubbardston • Hull • Huntington • Ipswich • Kingston • Lancaster • Lawrence • Leicester • Lenox • Leominster • Leverett • Lexington • Littleton • Ludlow • Lunenburg • Malden • Manchester-by-the-Sea • Mansfield • Marblehead • Mashpee • Maynard • Medfield • Medford • Medway • Middleborough • Middleton • Milford • Millis • Milton • Monson • Montague • Monterey • Montgomery • Nahant • Natick • New Ashford • New Bedford • New Braintree • New Salem • Newburyport • Newton • Norfolk • North Adams • North Andover • North Reading • Northampton • Northfield • Norton • Norwell • Norwood • Orange • Otis • Palmer • Peabody • Pelham • Pembroke • Peru • Petersham • Pittsfield • Plainfield • Plymouth • Plympton • Provincetown • Quincy • Randolph • Raynham • Reading • Rehoboth • Rockport • Salem • Sandisfield • Saugus • Scituate • Seekonk • Sharon • Sheffield • Shelburne • Sherborn • Shirley • Somerville • South Hadley • Southampton • Southbridge • Southwick • Springfield • Sterling • Stockbridge • Stoneham • Stoughton • Sturbridge • Sudbury • Sunderland • Templeton • Tewksbury • Tisbury • Truro • Tyngsborough • Wales • Walpole • Ware • Wareham • Warren • Warwick • Washington • Watertown • Webster • Wellesley • Wellfleet • Wendell • Wenham • West Boylston • West Newbury • West Tisbury • Westfield • Westford • Westhampton • Westport • Westwood • Weymouth • Whately • Whitman • Williamsburg • Williamstown • Winchendon • Winchester • Worcester • Worthington • Wrentham
Info above Retrieved from the Website, http://massbottlebill.org/wp/
