Election roundup: Big Food joins Big Bottle in opposing expansion of bottle bill

I shouldn't be charged to recycle a bottle.

Yes, but, depending on where I live, putting returnables in my recyclables can mean having homeless people digging through my bin, possibly making a mess, and probably taking non-returnable bottles along with the returnables (by accident). Those non-returnables then get thrown in the trash (best case scenario) or left in the street instead of being recycled.

And in this day and age, I'm not sure how much incentive a 5c deposit really provides to people who don't recycle anyway. If, as you suggest, I'm willing to forgo the 30c deposit on a $9 sixpack of craft beer, then it's just as likely that someone at my same income level would be perfectly happy to throw them in the trash rather than return them.

And some people would probably justify putting them in the trash, even if they do recycle, specifically to keep the homeless from digging through their recycling bin.

Point is, the bottle bill that made sense in the early 80s doesn't necessarily make sense today. We have efficient municipal recycling programs in place, and as Swirly pointed out, you're not going to eliminate highway trash unless you also put a deposit on Dunkies cups, McDonalds wrappers, etc.

Mine usually are clean on the lid, so I cut that off and recycle it. The greasy bottom part goes in the trash. I believe the prohibition is so food residue won't attract vermin to recycling bins, trucks, and processing facilities.

Why measure yourself against all the other slackers and not against what is possible? If Seattle got 55%, why can't Boston do better? Geez, it's recycling, not advanced math.

Besides, the poster said:

most people would be happy to just stick their bottles

and 30% isn't most.

Just expand what is already in place. They already have, in your words, "stinky homeless people" coming to their redemption center, so what difference does it make if suddenly more bottles are eligible for redemption?

.. are too far gone to be so enterprising. No really. Fudd was on my doorstep again but wandered away. Max the paranoid schizophrenic was too busy trying to convince me he owned the building.

It's Haitian grandmas, Chinese grandpas and people who are willing to hustle. A fair number of Latinos. I see em outside my Inman window all day and hear them at night. And they are surprisingly tidy and mindful.

They are out in all weather and all seasons.It's kind of a glibertarian wet dream. And Cambridge is great pickings because people have money here and don't give a shit about getting the nickle back. I never did when I drank beer and I live well on 8 grand a year.

And then there is the change in how we are. I was born into a world of bottle deposits and thought nothing of it. It would have been hard to find anyone who cared. Depression era people were sturdier and the cult of me was at a low ebb.

We really do look ridiculous by comparison. Obsessive fastidiousness is hardly a winning attribute and anyone who works in the food biz well knows there are far stinkier problems than bottles and cans and these are handled with skill and aplomb.

You know I'm generally sympathetic to your outlook. I tend to save my contempt for better targets as there are plenty of fish in this barrel to lob ridicule units at.

For shits I looked Raleigh up, wondering if it was some kind of undiscovered mecca of sound practices that should be lauded for moving beyond this arrangement.

But no. http://raleighpublicrecord.org/news/2013/12/02/ral...

The money quote:

Raleigh’s rate of household waste diverted from the landfill is about the same as Charlotte and Wilmington, but below that of Asheville, Cary and Greensboro. And according to the International City/County Management Association, its recycling rate per account (including multi-family communities) was 0.14 of a ton in 2012, compared to the national average of 0.24.

You got the cool 95 gallon blue tubs like Cambridge only with neat black lids.

You are also in for a long wait to see any improvement in public spending on the various underclass sorts you'd like to save from the indignity of fishing returnables from some low place as easy breezy wiki wee wee tells anyone who will look it up. There has been a bit of back sliding on that score, if anything.

In 2012, the state also elected a Republican Governor (Pat McCrory) and Lieutenant Governor (Dan Forest) for the first time in more than two decades, while also giving the Republicans veto-proof majorities in both the State House of Representatives and the State Senate. Several U.S. House of Representatives seats also flipped control, with the Republicans holding nine seats to the Democrats' four.

Veto proof majorities. Dayum.. Good thing the poors can scrounge bottles. You all are lucky they are docile.

Next.

Explain how a bottle deposit will help with the DD cups, McDonalds wrappers, empty cigarette packs, butts, and everything else that doesn't have a deposit.

Just like there is never one solution to a problem, the bottle bill doesn't fix all litter problems. But, the bottle bill as it stands now is hugely inconsistent with a large part of drink containers not included in the bill. It was written years ago when bottled water and other products weren't popular. I just want to see the bill adjusted for modern times. Kind of like the AMT (taxes) badly needs to be adjusted.