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To the editor:
This letter is the answer to the bottle bill question and increases the deposit to 10 cents. Both Dennis Robitaille and Cynthia Noftall bring up interesting and important perspectives on the new Massachusetts Expanded Bottle Bill from both consumer and retailer experiences.
The plastics industry and U.S. beverage companies produce about 100 billion plastic bottles each year to sell soda, water, energy drinks and juices, and that number is expected to triple by 2050. increase.
They made recycling and disposal of that plastic the responsibility of the consumer. This is unfair and an entirely separate topic for discussion.
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Many plastic beverage containers are made from the easiest plastic to recycle.
However, most of these containers are either contaminated in trash cans (too much material that cannot be recycled in the same trash can), people simply throw them in trash cans, or people litter in parks and streets. Not recycled in the end. with them.
Replacing deposit bottles in retail stores produces the cleanest, least polluting materials and ensures an easier process for recycling that plastic.
In the 10 states with plastic bottle laws, plastic bottle recycling rates have nearly quadrupled.
Evidence suggests that sedimentation systems effectively reduce litter and marine plastics.
Massachusetts still has a long way to go.a boston globe In July of this year, an article stated, “When it comes to recovering nickel deposits by returning empty bottles and cans to grocery stores and redemption centers, Massachusetts residents lag behind their peers in other states on bottle charges. is taking
According to the Container Recycling Institute’s 2022 report, the state has the lowest bottle redemption rate among the 10 states that use bottle bills. “
Raise the deposit to 10 cents to encourage higher recycling rates and expand the bill to include disposable water bottles and other types of beverage containers that didn’t exist when the bill was drafted nearly 40 years ago. I agree with all of you. .
Andrea Lacroix
Ipswich
