This from SHNS:
Biz Groups to offer alternative to Bottle Bill expansion:
While a coalition of environmental groups is poised to take a bottle bill expansion proposal to the 2014 ballot, opponents of the idea will make a pitch Tuesday afternoon to phase out the bottle law and instead impose a one-cent fee on containers sold in Massachusetts with the revenues earmarked to bolster "pay as you throw" and other recycling programs.
"The bottle bill charges a five-cent fee for bottles and cans that many families are already recycling at the curb," Chris Flynn, president of the Massachusetts Food Association and a member of Real Recycling of Massachusetts, said in a statement released ahead of a hearing of the Telecommunications, Utilities and Energy Committee's planned public hearing in Gardner Auditorium.
The Senate last session passed legislation expanding the bottle law to more types of beverages but the proposal died without a vote on it in the House. Speaker Robert DeLeo, who helped pass a $500 million tax law this year but is now retreating on a key aspect of that law, the software services tax, has in the past likened bottle bill expansion to tax increases in making the case against expansion of the bottle bill.
The plan favored by Flynn and groups like the Retailers Association of Massachusetts, the Massachusetts Beverage Association, the Massachusetts Package Stores Association, Tedeschi Food Shops and Stop & Shop is included in legislation sponsored by Worcester Democrats Rep. John Binienda and Sen. Michael Moore.
What the bill's critics say
The critics of expanding the bottle bill say it would increase the price of groceries by $116 million a year while adding $58 million a year in new operating costs for retailers, grocers and beverage companies. Backers of expanding the state's bottle redemption deposit to water, juice, sports drinks and other non-carbonated beverages said Wednesday it is time for the public to decide a decade-long fight.
Since it went into effect in 1983, the 5-cent deposit has only applied to beer and carbonated beverages. Janet Domenitz, executive director of MASSPIRG, said environmentalists have waited long enough for a policy change they say will increase recycling and cut down on litter. - M. Norton/SHNS
http://www.capecodtoday.com/article/2013/09/17/21699-four-statewide-offices-open-biz-groups-want-alternative-bottle-bill-broad-b
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