Updating the Bottle Bill

Stop Litter, Increase Recycling

For over a decade, MASSPIRG and a large and diverse coalition have been calling for an update of the Bottle Bill. After the more than $9 million spent by bottlers and the waste industry defeated this proposal on the November 2014 ballot, we still believe it sets the standard for effective recycling programs and are organizing support for a new bill (H.2875/S.1752), sponsored by Representative Gloria Fox (Boston) and Senator Cynthia Creem (Newton), that aims to increase the recylcing rates of all beverage containers to the high level of deposit containers.

WHAT THE BILL DOES

Provides for a six-year waiting period to see if the alternative recycling methods proposed by the bottling industry have succeeded. As of 2013, 80% of containers with a deposit were recycled, but only 23% of containers without a deposit (like water bottles and sports drinks) were recycled.
If, after six years, that 23%, as tracked by the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) doesn’t get within five percentage points of 80%, container deposits will be enacted for water bottles and sports drinks.

WHY THE BILL IS IMPORTANT

If we passed a bottle bill update, it would:

Save cities and towns $7 million a year in litter pick-up and trash disposal, resulting in cleaner streets and parks.
Save energy and oil from being wasted. It takes 50 million barrels of oil to produce PET water bottles for the US alone.
Create jobs! A 2012 report by MASSPIRG and the Sierra Club estimated that 1,500 jobs would be created by updating the bottle bill.

BOTTLE BILL FACTS

In Massachusetts, beverage containers compose 15.2% of solid waste by volume.
Container deposit laws have been shown to decrease beverage container litter by over 80% and decrease total litter by over 40%.

Media Hit | Solid Waste

Environmentalists, businesses clash over bottle bill

BOSTON (WWLP) - 95 state lawmakers have signed onto an expanded bottle bill that proposes to extend the state’s 5-cent refundable deposit on soda cans to water bottles, sports drinks, and juice containers.

“We know that if we put the nickel deposit on those containers it will be a very effective tool at recycling them,” said MassPIRG Executive Director Janet Domenitz.

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Media Hit | Solid Waste

WITH BALLOT QUESTION IN THE WORKS, LAWMAKERS HEAR BOTTLE BILL DEBATE

Proposals to expand the bottle deposit were before lawmakers on the Telecommunications, Utilities and Energy Committee for a legislative hearing. Frustrated with lawmakers, the bill’s supporters are also angling to put the proposal on the 2014 ballot.

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News Release | MASSPIRG | Solid Waste

Broad Coalition Calls For Passage of the Updated Bottle Bill

MASSPIRG testifies before the State House Joint Committee on Telecom, Utilities and Energy and urges them to pass the Updated Bottle Bill.

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News Release | MASSPIRG | Solid Waste

MASSPIRG, Coalition File to Put Updated Bottle Bill on Ballot

Today we are filing today a ballot initiative known as the Updated Bottle Bill. This proposed law would add water, juice, sports drinks and other beverages to the existing 5-cent deposit law. When this measure becomes law, there will be less litter, more recycling, and millions of taxpayer dollars saved in the reduced cost of waste disposal in our cities and towns.

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News Release | MASSPIRG | Solid Waste

12,000 Bay Staters Tell DEP: Enforce the Waste Bans

In just over one month’s time, the consumer advocacy group MASSPIRG (Massachusetts Public Interest Research Group) has collected over 12,000 signatures calling on Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Commissioner Kenneth Kimmell to sign a pledge to crack down on violators of Massachusetts’ longstanding waste bans.

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News Release | MASSPIRG | Solid Waste

Advisory: Hearing on Updated Bottle Bill

On Wednesday, July 20, MASSPIRG will hold a press conference outside the State House at 9:30 a.m., to be followed by a legislative hearing on the Updated Bottle Bill.

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Media Hit | Solid Waste

Lowell Sun - Debate flows on opening bottle-bill deposit to more beverages

Litterbugs and waste mongers would get a fresh incentive to take bottles and cans to recycling centers across the state under a series of amendments to the state's "bottle bill." New legislation to update the 24-year-old bottle bill would add a 5-cent deposit to about 700 million non-carbonated beverages, such as iced tea, sports drinks, fruit juices and bottled water.

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Media Hit | Solid Waste

The Berkshire Eagle - Bill would extend deposit to more bottles

Litterbugs and waste mongers will get a fresh incentive to take bottles and cans to recycling centers across the state under a series of amendments to the state's "bottle bill." New legislation to update the 24-year-old bottle bill would add a 5 cent deposit to noncarbonated beverages, such as iced tea, sports drinks, fruit juices and bottled water. Bottles used for dairy products, instant formula, and FDA-approved medicines would remain off the list.

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Blog Post

MASSPIRG director to state lawmakers: No shortage of ideas for waste solutions

MASSPIRG members and many others are doing their part to reduce their contribution to the state's waste problem. It's time for lawmakers to do theirs.

Blog Post

Not one, not two, but four more states ban single-use plastic bags

The number of statewide plastic bag bans in the U.S. tripled in June, with Maine, Vermont, Connecticut and Oregon adding themselves to the list.

Blog Post

Nathan Proctor advocates for our right to repair at the FTC’s 'Nixing the Fix' workshop

We've been telling everybody who will listen that the companies that make electronics and other products should make it easier to repair your stuff. In July, we got to tell the Federal Trade Commission...

News Release | MASSPIRG

New Report shows what Bay Staters are trying to fix

BOSTON -- While New Englanders’ thriftiness is alive and well, a new report released today by the MASSPIRG Education Fund, “What are Bay Staters Trying to Fix?” chronicles some big obstacles in their way. The report analyzes data from the popular repair website iFixit.com and looks at what items people in Massachusetts are trying to fix, and why that can be harder than it should be.

Report | MASSPIRG

What are Bay Staters Fixing?

Here in Massachusetts, we want to fix our stuff.

Something breaks, or doesn’t work right. You could throw it away, but you don’t want to be wasteful so you try to figure out how to get it fixed.

According to a review of data from iFixit, a self-described “repair guide for everything, written by everyone,” 1.6 million unique users from Massachusetts went onto their website www.ifixit.com to look up how to repair something in 2018. That’s about 23 percent, nearly 1 in 4 Massachusetts residents.

Looking more closely into that data from iFixit, the top ten device types that Bay Staters attempted to fix were cell phones, laptops, automobiles, desktop computers, gaming consoles, tablets, clothing, watches, wireless speakers and iPods. Cell phone repair guides were by far the most popular, receiving 26 percent of all the page views.