Opinions flow on call to expand Bay State’s bottle bill

LYNN – As lawmakers on Beacon Hill held a public hearing Wednesday afternoon on a bill to expand the bottle bill to non-carbonated drinks including juices and bottled water, shoppers at Stop & Shop in Lynn expressed mixed feelings on the plan.During the hearing before the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Utilities, Telecommunications and Energy, food industry leaders blasted the proposal.”We don’t need to bribe people to do the right thing,” said Chris Flynn, president of the Massachusetts Food Association. “We need to educate them. We need to educate people and we need to provide them the tools to do it.”Other opponents maintain the deposit on water and juice bottles would drive up the cost of the beverages at a time when shoppers are already coping with skyrocketing grocery prices.State Rep. John Keenan, D-Salem, House chairman of the committee, pressed supporters of the expansion about whether curbside recycling, which has become an urban staple since the advent of the original bottle law, had obviated much of the need for adding new bottle deposits. Rather, he wondered, would resources be better used improving the curbside system?Keenan’s questions echoed those raised by Flynn and other critics of the proposed expansion, who called for education campaigns, greater use of public recycling bins and other recycling inducements.Massachusetts first enacted a bottle bill in 1982 that added the refundable 5-cent deposit to beer and soda containers.The Item interviewed four shoppers outside Stop & Shop in Lynn on Wednesday and, of those, only one opposed the expansion.”I’m against it,” said Matt McDonald, an employee of Top Notch Roast Beef on Chatham Street who was buying a 24-pack of Poland Spring to bring back to work. “It’s ultimately going to take money out of our pockets.”McDonald said the owners of Top Notch, like most stores and supermarkets, would most likely charge more for the drinks if the bill passes.Others said they support the bill for different reasons.”I support recycling and anything it would to take to support it. If that’s what it takes to recycle the bottles so we don’t waste, 5 cents is not that much,” said Bridget Nambouh.Alfred Brooks, 74, a security guard for Stop & Shop, said he would support the bill even if consumers would have to pay more for the drinks.”I think what it’ll do is generate more income and that’s what the purpose is,” Brooks said. “Anybody who says it’s for anything else than that I just don’t believe them. It’s an extra tax, there’s no doubt about it.”Lois Bragan, however, said she supports the measure because it would benefit her.”I return all my bottles,” Bragan said. “I recycle and return bottles and cans so that doesn’t bother me at all. I’m going to get the nickel back.”Besides, Bragan said, the measure might prompt people to stop buying bottled water and go straight to the tap.”Do you really need to buy bottled water? Maybe you should just take the water from the faucet because the Lynn water is so good,” she said.(Material from the State House News Service was used in this report.)