Mike Kessel, owner, Beverly (Mass) Bottle and Can

It's true: The proposed Tennessee Recycling Refunds Act will create at least 500 small Tennessee businesses--primarily redemption centers--and it will net at least 1,500 new Tennessee jobs in collecting, sorting, transportation and primary processing. These numbers don't include many more jobs ("indirect" or "induced") that will be supported by redemption centers and redemption-center workers. And it doesn't include the manufacturing jobs created when industry suddenly has a steady supply of high-quality scrap glass, plastic and aluminum.

Beverage containers wash into Knoxville's Third Creek (photo by Mark C. Campen)

Container deposits = cleaner landscapes—and don't let anyone tell you different. No, deposits don't absolutely eliminate litter. But based on decades of data, clean-up records and other evidence in deposit states, Tennessee can expect to see the volume of beverage-container litter shrink by at least 80 percent for cans and bottles only, and by at least 40 percent for litter overall, in the wake of a 5-cent deposit on most beverage containers.

Beverage containers account for roughly half of Tennessee's overall litter volume (far more by weight, and probably not much less by piece-count). You may find this surprising, because roadside debris also includes fast-food packaging, plastic grocery sacks, bits of tire tread, the occasional appliance or mattress and so on. Nonetheless, by every consistent measure, beverage containers are the number-one offender statewide.

We encourage you to see for yourself, using the volume measure:

Put on a pair of gloves and sturdy shoes, and arm yourself with a dozen or so 13-gallon, drawstring-type trash bags (don't use 30-gallon trash bags, because you won't be able to pack them full enough for consistent counting). Now, find a typically littered stretch of Tennessee roadway, and begin collecting beverage cans and bottles separately from everything else. (Feel free to make a note of the mattresses, washing machines and so on, but in truth these are relatively rare.) Fill each bag very full, then tie it closed. After you've cleaned up a representative stretch of roadside (perhaps an eighth of a mile, both sides), compare the numbers of container bags to the number of non-container bags. It's a safe bet your results will be somewhere between 30 percent and 70 percent containers, and very likely close to the 50 percent average that POP observed at the conclusion of its "X Marks the Spot" separated cleanup in 2005/2006.

And if you are wondering what this bill does about non-container litter, be assured of two things:

One, deposits have a trickle-down impact on littering in general. The less littered a space is, the less it encourages littering. This appears to be why the state of Maine has roughly 4 ounces of litter per person per year, compared to Tennessee's four POUNDS of litter per person per year. 

And two: The Tennessee bill assures the continued funding of the current litter-control program known as the County Litter Grants, which uses jail crews to pick up roadways and provides funding for litter education and Keep Tennessee Beautiful. This program is currently paid for by a "litter tax" on beverages sold in Tennessee (the tax is based on volume sales of beer and sollar sales of soft drinks, but it equals about 1/8 cent per container). These taxes will automatically be eliminated if the proposed Tennessee Recycling Refunds bill passes; but the bill stipulates that the funding is replaced with a flat tax of 1/8 cent, to be used in exactly the same way the funding is used now.

"Rally support for a recycling law"

Letter to the editor by William D. Guinn, Knoxville 

Knoxville News-Sentinel 
August 13, 2010

The last few years have seen numerous letters to the editor complaining about trash on our roads.

Eleven states have enacted what is commonly called a "bottle bill." It is a bill requiring a deposit on aluminum cans, plastic and glass bottles that encourages people to return their empty containers and reclaim their deposit. More information can be found online by searching "TN bottle bill."

Why do we not have a similar bill in Tennessee? Because some selfi sh special interests, principally the beverage industry, have used their lobbying power to keep this bill from going through the full Legislature for a vote.

States that have bottle bills experience 80 percent to 90 percent return on beverage containers.

These bills keep material that can be recycled such as aluminum, plastic and glass out of landfi lls, thereby cutting landfi ll costs. They reduce energy costs because recycling aluminum is less expensive than the smelting of ore. They create jobs for people to run redemption centers where the items are returned. It is estimated that there is a possibility of creating 500 redemption centers in Tennessee and 2,000 full- and part-time jobs.

What can you do about this bill? First, go online and educate yourself about the bill. Get all of the conservation organizations in the state to support this bill. Get your county commission to endorse this bill. Insist that your state lawmakers vote for the bill.

For more information about the bill, call me at 865-922-0879.

Forever trashy: We won’t curb litter until it costs to toss

Opinion by Chris Fletcher, editor
Columbia Daily Herald
March 21, 2010

"Why clean it up? It will just be there again tomorrow.”

This is the attitude too many Maury County citizens have regarding roadside litter, and the depressing truth is their sentiments are based on experience.

Every spring, as green grass shoots up creating what should be a lush carpet for our gorgeous hillsides, it becomes instead a background framing endless tons of trash.

And every spring, hundreds of volunteers hit the highways for countless backbreaking hours, picking up the flotsam of fools.

Riding a tide of cigarrette butts are hamburger-wrappers, dirty diapers, cardboard boxes, chunks of truck tire and an endless variety of junk.

But beverage containers are the mainstay of highway litter. On a sunny day, broken beer bottles glint from every ditch. Once-shiny soda cans lie flattened, half buried in gravel. Dirty plastic bottles line every shoulder, guardrail and bridge. These containers, as much as any other type of garbage, have filled the bags I have lugged along as cleanup volunteer.

And no matter how pristine those volunteers leave a particular stretch of road, the trash is always back by the next year. Sometimes it’s back by the next day.

I don’t have the expertise or the space to examine the psychology of littering. But I believe it is the symptom of extreme ignorance or a total lack of pride in your community, state and nation. If you throw junk on the ground, you are no patriot.

No amount of anger or chastising will end this problem, however. Some people just don’t think. Some just don’t care.

They might care if they knew they’d be fined or arrested. But few people are ever prosecuted for littering, and litterers know it. This is not going to change. It’s extremely difficult to catch litterers in the act or to prove responsibility. Other people won’t take the time to report them, much less go to court. And littering ranks low on the the priority list for law enforcement.

So what else might make them care? Money.

The so-called “bottle bill” under consideration by a state legislative subcommittee would make a gigantic amount of the junk that now clutters our roadsides valuable. Valuable enough to pick up. Valuable enough to not throw out in the first place.

A lot of people are calling the proposal, which would put a 5-cent deposit on beverage containers, a tax. And for those who choose to throw their cans and bottles out the car window, it would be: a punitive, well-deserved tax. For non-recyclers who continue sending aluminum, glass and plastic to landfills — at great expense to all taxpayers and the environment — beverages would cost a little more. Some of their uncollected deposit money would be used to create container redemption centers and jobs.

But for those willing to make a small effort to recycle just their own containers — to try to help save the planet — there would be no cost. And for those who pick up other folks’ discarded containers, it would be a windfall.

Our county commission has supported this idea. A local aluminum processor says it would boost recycling.

But let’s be honest ... the bottle bill has little chance of passing anytime soon. It would be a radically progressive move requiring a boldness our state legislators currently reserve for gun bills.

Instead they will bow to the powerful lobbies that would be inconvenienced by this proposal, including beverage distributors and retailers. They will dole out weak excuses about fraud and other hurdles that could be easily overcome.

Then next year, when spring arrives, we will once again be treated to a trashy drive-through movie — a 3-D, technicolor look at human stupidity and our own weakness.

And yes, those of us who are bothered by it can get out there and pick it up. We will pick up as much as we can. But it will just be there again tomorrow.

Proposed 'bottle bill' backed by commission

By John I. Carney
Shelbyville Times-Gazette
Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Bedford County Board of Commissioners gave its endorsement [unanimously] Tuesday night to a state "bottle bill" which would add a 5-cent deposit to the cost of all soft drink, beer, energy drink or water cans and bottles, redeemable when the containers were turned in for recycling.

Marge Davis of Mt. Juliet appeared before commissioners to answer questions about it. Davis is coordinator of Pride Of Place, an organization formed to promote the bill, and also vice president of Scenic Tennessee Inc., which formed Pride Of Place.

Bottles would not be redeemed at the stores where they were purchased, as they were in the old days of returnable glass soft drink bottles. Instead, they would be accepted at recycling centers. Those centers would receive funding from unclaimed deposits and would also be able to sell the containers and materials collected.

Davis said the county would see no direct revenue from a bottle bill but would benefit through reduced tipping fees and transportation costs if the bill reduced the number of beverage containers disposed of in landfills. Commissioner Bobby Vannatta, a farmer, noted the problem of roadside litter causing damage to farm equipment. Davis said that the Tennessee Farm Bureau has endorsed the bill but has not actively lobbied for it.

The bill would not apply to liquor, wine or dairy products. Davis said the organizers made a practical decision to limit the bill so that they wouldn't need to face off against as many industry lobbyists. But she said a bottle bill would help increase the market for recycled glass, which could indirectly result in more wine and liquor bottles being recycled.

'Bottle bill' could give us Pride of Place

Editorial in The Daily News Journal (Murfreesboro)
Sunday, October 28, 2007

Marge Davis shouldn't have to ride across Tennessee to spread the word about Pride of Place, a litter and recycling plan that could be made possible by a five-cent deposit on glass, plastic and aluminum beverage containers.

But if that's what it takes to shine light on such a worthy cause, then we support Davis in her trek from Memphis to Bristol

The state Legislature should take notice of her effort and pass the "bottle bill" in the next election because it could do more to preserve energy and cut down on our throwaway mentality than any initiative we've seen in many years.

If it takes effect, Davis said 85 percent of the 4.2 billion beverage containers used annually across Tennessee would be recycled. That's a dramatic increase from the 10 percent now being recycled.

The legislation sponsored last year by Sen. Doug Jackson, D-Dickson, and Mike Turner, D-Old Hickory, would affect some 200,000 tons of beverage containers each year. We encourage the Rutherford County legislative delegation to get behind it.

That's an astounding amount of trash that would be removed from the sides of our highways and kept out of our landfills.

The bill ran into trouble last year because retailers and bottling companies complained that they'd be forced to handle, transport and sort bottles. The legislation, however, would set up independent drop-off centers for bottles and cans where independent recycling companies would collect and transport them.

This is a smart pieces of legislation. Finally, somebody has come up with a plan that will preserve natural resources, such as the petroleum that goes into plastic, and encourage people to recycle. Drink containers are a huge problem in our society. Consider the number of bottles of sports drinks and water emptied at last week's TSSAA state volleyball tournament in Murfreesboro. We'd bet they numbered in the thousands, and many of them will wind up in the landfill.

In our society, it is obvious that people need financial incentive to do some things.

Most people over 40 remember when they used to walk or ride their bicycles all over town looking for returnable soft drink bottles they could turn in for a nickel or dime. The Southern rock group Lynyrd Skynyrd sang about talked about it in "The Ballad of Curtis Lowe."

Once again, kids could be scouring neighborhoods looking for a few bottles to turn in for money. We look forward to reviving those days. This could even turn into a money-maker for local schools that collect bottles. It would certainly beat blackmailing parents to give students money so they can participate in fall festivals, but that's another issue.

We hope Marge Davis finds smooth roads in her ride across the state because her effort should add some Pride of Place to Tennessee.

Cyclist rides bicycle to promote recycling

Article by William Wright 
Cleveland Daily Banner 
Friday, October 26, 2007

The 2007 Pride of Place Bicycle Tour passed through Cleveland Tuesday traveling toward Knoxville to Johnson City before ending its last leg in Bristol.

Braving sheets of rain, turbulent winds from passing vehicles, steep hills and health concerns, a lone bicycle rider, POP Coordinator Marge Davis, is trekking 800 miles throughout Tennessee to raise awareness of Senate Bill 1408 and House Bill 1829.

The Tennessee Beverage Container Deposit Act for 2008 proposes to reduce litter and increase recycling by putting a five cent, refundable deposit on glass, plastic and aluminum beverage containers.

Davis, who has a Ph.D. in English, said her Bottle Bill bike ride, started on Oct. 6, is raising visibility for the bill and giving her an opportunity to explain its many benefits to Tennesseans.

“This is a fantastic piece of legislation commonly known as the Bottle Bill,” Davis said. “I’m working on this with legislators who are sponsoring it, raising grass roots support and providing education on the subject. The bill is gaining ground. This is going to create jobs and businesses.”

According to Davis, discarded bottles and cans are the number one source of litter in Tennessee, comprising roughly half of Tennessee’s litter by volume and even more by weight.

“A five cent deposit will eliminate 80 to 90 percent of this portion of litter and result in a 40 percent reduction of litter at the least,” said Davis.

“The bill will double the amount of money Tennessee counties are receiving for litter control. It will also generate millions of dollars each year for schools, churches, homeless shelters, little leagues and other community groups through bottle drives and collection programs.”

Davis said the benefits of Pride of Place, a litter and recycling solution made possible by the Tennessee bottle bill, will include recycling almost 4 billion empty beer bottles, soda cans, water bottles and other beverage containers which will be an 800 percent increase over current container recycling rates and provide funds to promote more recycling.

“Money from any unredeemed deposits can be used to pay for inmate litter crews, education and Keep Tennessee Beautiful. It’s really a materials recovery bill. We’re projecting 85 percent of all those billions of containers will be recovered under this bill.”

Davis said the roads in Wilson County are badly littered and is a primary reason why she is so passionate about bringing the Bottle Bill to reality.

“Eleven states are already doing it. We drink 4.2 billion beverages a year that would be covered under this bill. Every Tennessean drinks an average of 2 beverages a day but we throw away 90 percent of the empties. This bill can turn these empties into cash with the exception of straight wine, straight liquor and milk. They’re not covered under the bill,” she said.

Tennessee farmers will save millions of dollars in damages to equipment and even livestock who injure themselves eating broken glass, according to Davis.

“We’re asking communities to call their senator and state representative today and urge them to vote for this bill. This is certainly the most I’ve ever been involved in legislation, but it’s worth it if we can restore pride to our communities."

Cyclist rides to promote recycle bill

Ms. Beep column (Kate Howard) 
Tennessean (Nashville) 
Friday, September 28, 2007

Marge Davis is preparing to pedal more than 800 miles in the name of recycling.
Specifically, Davis is cycling for the bottle bill she is trying to bring to Tennessee. It involves a nickel.

On Oct. 6, she will begin a tour of towns, big and small, armed with a bunch of materials to educate and persuade people that allowing consumers to claim a 5-cent deposit on their empties might lead more Tennesseans to recycle. Who wants to throw money away?

"My ultimate goal is that in a year or two, people will drive down Tennessee roads and say, 'Wow. The roads look so much cleaner,' " Davis said.

Here's how the bill would work: the state collects 8 cents from a vendor, who gets a nickel back from the stores that sell their beverages. Customers pay the 5-cent deposit to the store when they buy the drinks, and they can return their empty containers and claim their deposit at a redemption center. The state pays the center back with money collected from the bottlers.

The 3 cents that the vendor is down on every bottle and can — as well as the state's beer lobby — is a big reason the bill hasn't passed, Davis said.

"They call it a tax," Davis said. "But don't you wish all taxes were completely refundable for citizens?"

Tennessee’s litter problem is shameful

Letter to the editor by John Seufert, Mt. Juliet 
Tennessean (Nashville) 
Wednesday, June 25, 2007

Tennessee: The litter capital of the United States.
.
My son and I just returned from a golf/sightseeing trip through parts of Washington, Montana, Idaho and southern British Columbia. Nine-hundred, eighty miles and four golf outings at four beautiful golf courses.

We returned to Nashville International Airport, and my wife picked us up and drove us home to Mt. Juliet. Within one mile of the airport, we saw more litter along the roadways than we did on our 980-mile trip!

We ought to be ashamed.

Bottle Bill Bottleneck

by Leslie Wylie 
Metro Pulse (Knoxville) 
Thursday, June 25, 2007

The debate continues over whether financial incentives should be used to motivate Tennesseans to recycle.

A tall, thin line of type along the edge of the Blue Moon label lists a handful of states offering 5- or 10-cent refunds for the bottle's recycling. The small print on the Dasani label lists a couple as well, alongside a Please Recycle insignia. At present, 11 U.S. states have so-called “bottle bills” in place that offer monetary incentives to consumers who return beer, soft drink and other beverage containers to redemption centers. There's a movement to get Tennessee on board as the 12th.

According to Marge Davis, coordinator of the Tennessee Bottle Bill Project, Tennessee annually produces 4.2 billion, or 230,000 tons, of potentially recyclable containers. A bottle bill, she explains, would reduce beverage-container litter by 80 to 90 percent. She points to the success other states have had with bottle bills, such as Maine, which passed its bottle bill in 1976. According to the Tennessee Bottle Bills Project's calculations, the residents of that state produce less than one-tenth of the litter produced by the residents of Tennessee.

“The recycling ethic is much higher in states with bottle bills,” Davis says, citing the average municipal recycling rate for the 11 states with bottle bills as 31 percent, compared to 20 percent for the 39 states without a deposit. “Their litter rate is a tiny fraction of ours. The stuff that is on the roadside disappears under the bottle bill. Maine barely has an adopt-a-highway program at all.”

But for Tennessee to have a bottle bill program in place, one must first be passed through the state Legislature. And bottle bill legislation, which has been reintroduced to the Legislature nearly annually for decades, still doesn't look to be going anywhere anytime soon—but supporters aren't deterred.

“The bill is still alive,” Davis says, referring to the Tennessee Beverage Container Deposit Act of 2007. The Senate version, SB1408, sponsored by Sen. Doug Jackson, and the House version, HB1829, sponsored by Rep. Mike Turner, would allow a 5-cent deposit on glass, plastic and aluminum/metal containers of two liters and less, with the containers being returned to independent redemption centers that would retain a 3-cent handling fee per container, paid by the beverage distributor. But there'll be no passage of the bill this year, at least, as it was rolled to 2008 earlier in the year. And according to the bill's opponents, there's no guarantee it'll pass next year, either.

Keep Knoxville Beautiful Executive Director Tom Salter is one of several who question the bill's ability to minimize Tennessee's litter problem. “Litter is a lot of things besides bottles and cans,” he says. “If you look in the water, you'll see bottles and cans because they float, but if you look on the roadside, you'll see a lot of other stuff.” He warns against thinking of the bottle bill as a silver bullet, favoring instead a comprehensive approach to litter control that includes public education, litter cleanups and stricter enforcement of litter ordinances.

He points out all of the other recyclable materials the bill overlooks, including what he calls “the biggest offender: paper,” and suggests that they be taken into account as well. “Is it worth it as a recycling program? Do we want to incentivize bottles and cans, or do we want to incentivize other materials as well? If we're going to use financial leverage to get people to recycle, let's go all the way.”

Which sounds easy enough in theory, but translating the theory into reality takes money, and lots of it.

“It think what the debate centers on is what do you get for the money,” Salter says. “There was no support in the Legislature simply because of the financial size of the bill, and it only deals with a small amount of the material out there…. The bottle bill would help with litter, but how much? I don't know, and do I want to say it's worth it? I would probably say no.”

Davis argues otherwise. Such a law, she says, would replace the current funding, which amounts to approximately $5 million annually from county litter grants used to fund programs such as litter education, Keep Tennessee Beautiful, and prisoner litter crews, with $10 million in deposits from unclaimed deposits. If the bottle bill was put in place, such county litter grants would be discontinued, and Davis says she thinks that's why organizations such as Keep Knoxville Beautiful aren't supportive of the bill.

“Every argument we have, Tom Salter has a response,” Davis says. She accuses him of putting up unsigned anti-bottle bill websites, and of making fun of her on his Keep Knoxville Beautiful blog. “It wasn't nice.”

But Davis remains hopeful that the bottle bill will pass, eventually.

Until it goes back in front of the Legislature in 2008, she says the Bottle Bill Project will focus on “public education, making people across the state aware of it and helping them understand how it functions.”

Tennessee becoming the 'land of litter' (excerpt)

Letter to the editor by Kate Cywinski, Nashville 
Nashville Tennessean 
Tuesday, April 17, 2007

I always imagined Tennessee as breathtaking waterfalls amidst lush, tree-covered mountains — so I was excited to move to Nashville last January.

I've explored a number of state parks and the Great Smoky Mountains, and I discovered that Tennessee does have many beautiful features. But to my dismay, Tennessee's beauty is diminished by the bottles, papers, cans, garbage bags and cigarette butts lining the streets, highways and trails.

I've visited all but two states, and I have never seen so much garbage. Tennessee license plates might as well read, "The Land of Litter."

Mt. Juliet woman continues fight for ‘bottle bill’

article by Evan McMorris-Santoro
Lebanon Democrat
Monday, April 2, 2007

When it comes to the nickel, Marge Davis is always willing to giver her two cents.

“The big motivation is the preposterous amount of litter,” Davis remarked from her Mt. Juliet home. “This state is beautiful, but the roads are just big trash piles.”

Davis heads up Pride Of Place, an advocacy group calling for a five-cent deposit on beverage containers sold in Tennessee. According to POP, the chance to get a nickel back on every beer can and soda bottle will drive Tennesseans to stop pitching their empties out the window and help keep the state's roads clean of litter. Over the past five years, “the bottle bill" – as Davis's plan is known in the halls of the capitol – has been a mainstay of the legislative agenda, popping up and usually going nowhere.

Last year was one of the better sessions for the bill – it actually made it all the way to a House committee hearing, the last hurdle before getting the chance at an up or down floor vote. The bottle bill got one vote, from Rep. Ben West.

This year, Davis thinks things are going to be different.

“There’s been a seismic shift in people’s attitudes toward this bill this year," Davis said. She recently spent a day in Nashville lobbying for the bottle bill on behalf of the 500 supporters she says makes up the membership of POP. Where legislators have in the past been wary of a bill that would – at its most basic – add a nickel to the price of every Coke, Pepsi or Budweiser purchased by thirsty customers statewide, Davis says the recent return to environmental awareness has opened the door for the bottle bill like never before. The loudest resistance to bottle bills across the nation has always been large beverage producing companies.

They worry that the additional price of a beverage deposit will require them to lower prices to stay competitive – not to mention trim their profits in the process. Davis says that as Americans have become more concerned about recycling and the climactic effects of the country's disposable economy, the beverage industry's concerns about bottle bills have fallen on increasingly deaf ears.

"They're still somewhat supportive of their beverage-producing constituents," Davis said of state lawmakers. "But they're coming around to understanding that people need to change their business practices just a little bit to help improve our environment."

According to POP's research a bottle bill would certainly go a long way toward improving Tennessee's recycling rates, which rank among the lowest in the nation. In states that have beverage container deposit programs (found mostly in the Northeast), recycling rates for aluminum and glass can reach above 80 percent. In Tennessee, the number is 10 percent. Davis says the chance to get cash back for recyclables would raise that number in no time.

"Hawaii came up to a 90 percent [recycling rate] in its first year after passing a bottle bill," Davis said. "I'm sure we would have a similar result here."

The bottle bill is expected to go before a state House subcommittee sometime this week. Though Davis has more sponsors for her legislation than ever before, none of Wilson County's legislative delegation has signed on to the plan. Both of the county's House members, Rep. Susan Lynn (R – Mt. Juliet) and Rep. Stratton Bone (D – Lebanon), said that they are waiting to see if the bill survives in committee before issuing official positions on it.

Though she sees a bright future for the bottle bill, Davis said she's prepared to get disappointed yet again.

"Some people get discouraged; I haven't gotten discouraged yet," she said. "I mean this is the twenty-first century – to use a product only once is like throwing a shirt away after you've worn it for the first time. It just doesn't make any sense."

Superfund site on the Wolf?

letter to the editor by Tommy Thompson, Memphis 
Memphis Commercial Appeal 
Friday, Feb. 2, 2007

I used to think that world-class filth and litter were restricted to places like the urban slums of the Third World countries in which I have traveled. However, I have never seen anything quite like what I saw on a two-hour kayak trip on the Wolf River, in the middle of Memphis.

I paddled upstream from the boat launch at the north end of Harbor Island (at the Wolf's mouth at the Mississippi River) to the Watkins Street Bridge. The waste of all kinds, including animal carcasses, was at such an epic degree that I wonder if this could be considered as a "superfund" site.

On this blustery, winter day the stench was nauseating. To clean up what I saw would be more than any local, volunteer association could begin to handle. In the short distance I paddled I saw hundreds of tons of debris surrounded by water with a 10-20 foot wide layer of film.

This sort of overwhelming challenge is why government was invented. This grossly egregious lack of stewardship of this small part of our planet is the responsibility of all of us.

Legislatively, little seems to have been done on the local, state or national level to limit the profusion of plastic bottles, which accounted for much of the litter I saw. This plastic waste has been washed down into the river from adjacent Memphis neighborhoods. The filth on the Wolf above Memphis is nowhere near the level I found in the center of Memphis.

The condition of this waterway should be an embarrassment to all of us who claim to be caretakers of our waterways and wetlands.

Bottle bill would produce yet another tax for state

letter by Tom Griffing, Clarksville 
The (Clarksville) Leaf-Chronicle
Thursday, April 1, 2006

By any other name, a tax is a tax. When considering the merits of the proposed bottle bill, do not be misled by terms like deposit or handling fees. Have no doubt what they are proposing is an additional tax on beverages. This is in addition to the high sales taxes you are already paying, and the hidden "sin" tax you pay on beverages containing alcohol.

I am originally from New York where they have one of the most intrusive deposit programs in the country, and from my visit last summer, I can attest it has done little to prevent littering. The slobs who toss their trash out of their car windows are not going to alter their behavior because of higher soda or beer prices. A hefty fine and a month in an orange suit picking up their own filth might. I do not litter, and I'm guessing the majority of you do not either.

As to the argument that deposit laws must be effective because places like New York and Maine have not repealed them, consider this. How many politicians do you know are in the business of lowering your tax bill? Yes these laws are effective. They are an effective way to relieve you of more of your hard earned money. And believe me, there will be little incentive for the state to make returning your empties convenient. They get more taxes from you if it is a hassle and you throw the bottle away anyway. My experience in New York is that it is a major hassle, costing you time and gas to stand in line to get only a portion of your money back.

If such a bill passes, I am thinking a monthly drive to the Wal-Mart in Oak Grove will look cost effective. It is only 2.5 miles from the state line. You can already save almost 10 percent on food and almost four percent on everything else. Imagine if soft drinks, water and beer were automatically $1.92 cheaper per case on top of these savings from lower sales taxes.

Ladies and gentlemen of Tennessee, start your engines!