Water bottles, wine bottles, and carbonated and non-carbonated drinks continue to be cast aside on our Vermont roadsides and fields, and our longstanding bottle deposit program is begging to be expanded to include them. A proposed bottle bill gives our Vermont state representatives and senators that opportunity.
The current state deposit program has proved to have substantial merit. It has been shown that bottle deposit programs offer a consistent quantity of raw materials for new containers - aluminum, PET (polyethylene terephthalate, used for plastic bottles and packaging), glass - and consistently clean, uncontaminated quality beyond that of curbside programs.
However, Vermont's doesn't go far enough.
We have a chance to tighten ours up to include these items, but we must speak up. In the face of intense opposition from beverage industry lobbyists and resistance from our governor, we must loudly tell our representatives, including Senator Becca Balint, that we demand that this bottle bill be firmly pushed forward during this session.