Resources

• Sample Letters to the Editor
• Sample Letter to your State Representative/Senator
• Sample Article
• Sample City/Town Resolution

Sample Letters to the Editor

Use these to inspire your own letter

In the recent article in your paper, the author was on target about the benefits of our highly successful bottle bill. Litter has decreased since its inception. The Massachusetts Legislature is currently considering a proposal to update the bottle bill to cover water bottles, iced tea, and other popular beverages that currently fill our landfills or are strewn through our streets and parks. Most of these non-covered containers are made of PET.

Recycling PET bottles, which are comprised of 99% petroleum, makes good sense in a time where we’re trying to decrease our dependence on foreign oil. We now send more than three million pounds of PET per year to the dump – and this material never disintegrates.

Sen. O’Leary has been lobbying to replace the bottle bill with a “litter tax” like the one used in New Jersey. Yet this plan – which was never intended to be a recycling program – has been a dismal failure in New Jersey. It has limited funds for litter removal, actually exacerbating the trash problem.

Let’s not replace the bottle bill with a plan proven to be ineffective. We need to expand the bottle bill, not dump it.

Bottle Bill Necessary

To the Editor:

For a representative government to work, constituents need to understand what is happening in the legislative halls. Let me share what I know.

At this moment, the Massachusetts Legislature can take an important step toward improving our environment, but the special interests are fighting to defeat a bill intended to improve one of the most successful environmental laws this state has ever passed. I am referring to the Bottle Bill, passed in 1982, which puts a 5-cent deposit on carbonated beverage containers.

The pending bill would expand the law to acknowledge the proliferation of beverage containers that did not exist when the original law was passed and are not redeemable. This includes water bottles, iced tea, and other popular beverages, which are filling our garbage cans, littering our highways, and polluting our environment for generations to come.

I am urging your readers to let our legislators know that the House should debate and vote on this bill and persuade them to publicly let their constituents know where they stand on this important issue.

Special interests are trying to kill a bill currently being reviewed by our State Legislature that will expand on our very successful Bottle Bill.

The pending bill would expand the law to acknowledge the proliferation of beverage containers that did not exist when the original law was passed and are not redeemable. This includes water bottles, iced tea, and other popular beverages, which are filling our garbage cans, littering our highways, and polluting our environment for generations to come.

Recycling is not a short-term enterprise. It takes a long-term commitment and a strong incentive to achieve high recovery rates of plastic bottles or any other recyclable material.

Bottle bills provide that incentive by requiring refundable deposits on beverage containers. The proof is in the recycling rates: Plastic soda bottle recycling rates are three times higher in the 10 bottle-bill states and the one bottle-bill city than they are in most non-bottle-bill states.

Bottle bills do more than recover plastic soda bottle (and other beverage containers) for recycling. They also keep them out of landfills and off of city streets, playgrounds and parks.

Massachusetts legislators should stand up against the bottlers in defense of keeping our communities clean. The bottle bill has been a tremendous success. It simply needs to be updated.

Dear Editor:

Our state legislature is considering legislation that would update the Bottle Bill, vastly reducing litter---and adding approximately $15 million to state revenues through projected unclaimed deposits. But in an attempt to increase profits at the expensive of the environment, beverage makers and grocery chains are teaming up to dump our Bottle Bill, this state’s most successful litter prevention program.

The bottle bill is badly in need of an update, as many of today’s drinks like bottled water, iced tea and sports drinks didn’t exist when the bill was written and therefore are not considered recyclable. But rather than try to make a good program better, the bottlers are trying to destroy the best recycling program we have.

Bottle bills do more than recover plastic soda bottles for recycling. They also keep harmful plastics out of landfills and off of city streets, playgrounds and parks. Bottles that not recyclable are 15 times more likely to end up becoming litter.

We need to not only keep our bottle bill, we need to update it!

Sincerely,

Bottle Bill Necessary

To the Editor:

This month, the Legislature can take an important step toward improving our environment, despite a huge campaign underway by special interests and lobbyists to defeat it. The Updated Bottle Bill is intended to improve one of the most successful environmental laws this state has ever passed.

The pending bill would apply the 5 cent deposit to newer beverages such as water, tea, and sports drinks. This can have a startling impact on our environment. While deposit containers are redeemed and recycled at a rate of 80 percent, the non-covered containers are only recycled at 20-25 percent. The rest are filling our garbage cans, littering our highways, and polluting our environment for generations to come.

We need to let our legislators know that we want a clean safe environment and we need to urge them to support the Updated Bottle Bill

Sincerely,

To the editor:

I am responding to Senator O’Leary’s desire to scrap our Bottle Bill and replace it with a “litter tax” – with the proceeds supposedly going to help clean up litter.

As Cape residents, we know that tourists not only generate revenue, but also huge amounts of litter. A lot of this litter is discarded beverage containers that are not covered by our existing Bottle Bill. The state legislature and many environmental groups are working to update the existing Bottle Bill to include water, tea and sports drinks to further curb pollution.

Unfortunately, Senator O’Leary’s plan may derail this important effort. Moreover, his proposed litter tax would remove the incentive that prevents bottles and cans from ending up on our streets and beaches. New Jersey’s failed litter tax should be a cautionary tale for us to step up and protect our Bottle Bill.

States that have implemented Bottle Bills have experienced a 70-85 percent reduction in litter through deposits that encourage people to redeem their empties or place them in the recycling bin. Deposits are proven to be the most effective way to dissuade people from throwing the containers in the trash, where they take up increasingly scarce landfill space, or degrade the Cape’s beauty that we all cherish.

Dear Editor,

Responding to your recent editorial/article, “_______________”, I would like to clear up some confusion about our current Bottle Bill and the proposed update.

The bottling industry has incorrectly claimed that deposits are “tax” placed on consumers. Bottle deposits are 100% refundable. They are not a tax, but an incentive for all of us to recycle. Simply returning the container from where you bought it, or putting it in a recycling bin, will help keep our neighborhoods litter-free and keep harmful plastics out of landfills.

The Updated Bottle Bill would also generate $16 million in badly needed additional revenue for the state. And since PET plastic bottles are made of 99 percent petroleum, it will decrease our dependency on oil.

That makes environmental—and economic sense.

Sample Letter to your State Representative/Senator

Dear Rep ____ or Sen ______,

I urge you to support House 1379 "An Act An Act To Improve Recycling Rates In The Commonwealth", known as the Bottle Bill Update - and to oppose S1822.

The Bottle Bill is the state's most successful recycling law. Since its inception, the bottle bill has resulted in millions of containers being recycled instead of winding up in our landfills. Containers covered by the bottle bill boast a recycling rate of over 70%, while those not covered amount to a mere 20-25%.

By updating the Bottle Bill to include non-carbonated drinks like water, juices, sports drinks, and liquor, we could increase recycling, which means less trash in our landfills, incinerators, and streets and it means decreased costs for waste management.

This revenue generated by the bottle bill is a voluntary fee, not a tax, since deposits are 100% refundable. Those who do not redeem their containers make a voluntary choice not to do so. Unclaimed deposits currently provide $34 million in badly needed funding. Under the expansion, more than $15 million would be added.

Thank you for your consideration, and I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Sample Article for your Organization's Newsletter

(Your organization) Calls for Expanding Bottle Bill

By _____

(Your organization) and other environmental organizations throughout Massachusetts have voiced their strong support of updating the state's bottle bill, urging lawmakers to add popular drinks like spring water, fruit juices, sports beverages, wines, and liquor that currently are exempted.

Since the Bottle Bill's inception in 1983, more than 30 billion containers have been redeemed under the Massachusetts bottle bill, contributing to a healthier environment, cleaner and safer communities, and a stronger economy. However, many newer beverages, once an insignificant part of the total sold, now comprise about one quarter of all beverages. The Bottle Bill has not been updated or expanded since its creation, except for increasing the handling fee for recycling centers. As consumers’ tastes change, the bottle bill must be updated to keep up with our times.

Adding these beverages to the bottle bill will boost their recycling rate - currently at a poor 20% - to over 70%. It will divert millions of bottles and cans from landfills to recycling centers, and will decrease litter. It will also add over $15 million in badly needed state revenue.

(Your organization) is working with other environmental groups to support efforts to update our bottle bill. Your email, fax, or phone call of support can help pass this important environmental legislation.

What You Can Do:

• Please call your legislator today! Urge him/her to support the Bottle Bill Update. To find your legislators’ email/phone: www.state.ma.us/legis/legis.htm 
• Give your beverage merchant a copy of this article
• Write a letter to your community newspaper supporting an expanded bottle bill.
• Visit www.sierraclubmass.org for more bottle bill facts, text of the original bottle bill, text of the proposed expanded bottle bill, and additional resources.

Sample City/Town Resolution

Whereas The Massachusetts Bottle Bill, enacted in 1982 has allowed (your city/town) residents to enjoy a cleaner environment by creating an incentive for users of certain beverage containers to recycle those used containers; and

Whereas, states with deposit laws have higher participation rate in residential recycling than those of non-deposit states, and;

Whereas litter decrease in states with Bottle Bills averages 70-85%

Whereas, through the Massachusetts Bottle Bill, we recycle over 80% of containers compared to only 25-30% in states without similar legislation, and;

Whereas the Governor of the Commonwealth, and members of the Massachusetts Senate and House of Representatives have recognized that the original bottle bill does not take into account those beverages such as bottled water, juices, and teas.

Be It Resolved

That we, the members of (your city/town's council, board of alderman, etc.) commemorate the 21st anniversary of the implementation of the Massachusetts Bottle Bill.

Furthermore, Be It Resolved That: the City be placed on record as being in support of the Massachusetts Beverage Container Deposit Law and encourages it's strengthening through expanding the list as recommended by the Governor in his proposed budget and currently being considered by the House and Senate Ways and Means Committees.

Furthermore, Be It Resolved that the (City Council) goes on record in supporting programs that encourage residents and visitor to return or recycle all beverage containers and other recyclable materials to fully utilize the currently available recycling programs.

Be it Further Resolved that the City instruct our state representatives and state senators, and our governor to support and vote in favor of Updating the Massachusetts Container Beverage Law.

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