Letter to the Editor

Update the Bottle Bill to Curb Waste and Litter 

To the Editor,

Living in the North End, it’s practically impossible to step out your front door without tripping on a ‘nip’ bottle that someone’s thrown in the street. Beverage container litter – from plastic water bottles, to sports drinks, and more – is everywhere. It’s in our streets, our parks, and our waterways.

Luckily, we have a solution to all this plastic. Container deposit laws, or ‘Bottle Bills’ as they’re better known, are the best recycling programs we have for reducing beverage container waste and litter. In fact, states with Bottle Bills see up to 65% reductions in total litter.

That could be us, but Massachusetts’ Bottle Bill hasn’t been updated in nearly 40 years, so it doesn’t cover the new beverage containers that have appeared on our grocery shelves since then. Thankfully, Sen. Creem and Rep. Decker’s Better Bottle Bill (H.3289/S.2149) updates the existing law to include all of those new containers, and increase the deposit from 5¢ to 10¢.

Senator Lydia Edwards is prioritizing the health and safety of North End and Massachusetts residents as a whole by endorsing the Better Bottle Bill and taking this important step towards improving recycling in the Commonwealth. Hopefully the Senate will pass the bill soon.

Sarah Becker,

North End resident