Get Rid of Bottle Deposit Laws! Now! (He wanted to say...)

About once a week, a ritual occurs in my neighborhood, and throughout the big city: people pushing shopping carts, going through the trash bins, looking for bottles (and cans) to bring to the nearest supermarket redemption center, to pick up their nickel or dime a bottle.

There goes another now. He lives on my block.  He owns a house.  And here he is, going through my recycle bin, collecting what few bottles I have that can be redeemed for their deposit.  (Maybe that's how he bought the house.)   And yes, I resent it.  (I know, I have issues.) That's my money he's taking from me. And he has to pick through my pails  and others -- including public trash cans -- to collect the change. (I also hate the mild invasion of my space: it's still MY trash until the sanitation workers take it away, dammit!)

Well, dude, why don't you just go to the supermarket and redeem them yourself? Answer: I don't have the time to wait on line -- it can take up to an hour or two -- just to redeem two bits' worth of bottles.  Why are the lines so long? Yes, because guys like this neighbor are there with a hundred or two hundred or a gazillion bottles, redeeming them.  Yes, the supermarket puts time limits, but unless they put a bottle limit, it's still not going to be good enough for me to come and get my coin. There's also the environmental cost of my driving to the supermarket.  (States wrestle with this irony as they contemplate bottle laws.) 

There are some solutions: I can and do try hard not to buy bottles.  When I do, it's usually while I'm out, and I put them in recycling containers in public places, or on campus.  But the fact that I do recycle, that it's become second nature to me, just makes me feel more strongly that the bottle deposit laws of my state are unnecessary, screwing the consumer out of a tiny bit of money that can add up to maybe a couple of hundred bucks a year.  I mean, who the hell doesn't separate their trash anymore?  Really!  So why should I subsidize the guy down the street just because he has the time to spend collecting and redeeming bottles and I go to work for a living???? (Yeh, I get all indignant like that. Make Paul Ryan proud, I'm sure.) 

So  did a little checking to see if I'm crazy, to see if there were any movements to end bottle deposit laws.  Well, there are.  But guess who sponsors those movements. 

Yep.  The American Beverage Association, mainly funded by the Big Boys of Battery Acid, Coke and Pepsi.  (Anheuser Busch is a big member too.) Why? They have to pay up to 3.5 cents for every can/bottle returned, and they don't want to.  They've fought legislation for years to expand bottle deposit laws, and they have successfully fought a national bottle deposit law, twice.

Wait -- did you even know about such a law being considered?  Well, keep this in mind:  There are only ten U.S. states that have bottle deposit laws on the books.  That's twenty percent of the entire nation, most of them in the Northeast (which do have high-density population centers -- which is no doubt why California also has a law).  They are all generally "blue" states, too, with a tradition of a more civic-minded environmentalism, and an understanding that there are some prices to be paid for public good.  The Beverage Industry has fought many campaigns to prevent bottle law expansion, and has successfully repealed the law in Delaware. 

One of the other things I learned by researching this issue is that these laws have made a substantive difference in the amount of recycled materials.  Most evidence suggests that there are real environmental benefits that offset the costs to recycle, and of course if we had a real environmental tax on the manufacturing of products that fuck up the planet, we could encourage businesses to develop more eco-friendly packaging, or, in the case of the worst stuff, stop making it altogether. 

So as much as I really can't stand the guy who goes through my trash, that's a me problem.  I have to be more mindful of my habits. I can stop using my recycling can and use a clear recyclable plastic bag, which can easily show the scavengers that I don't have any money inside it, that I'm only throwing away cans of tuna and tomato sauce, if I really can't stand the banging around the metal can at night, making me think it's a raccoon or a skunk trying to find some grub.  And I can just let go of wasted anger, too.