Is a Rhode Island bottle bill in the cards this year?

Warwick State Senator Mark McKenney, who introduced the legislation in the Senate, wouldn’t have placed odds on it a month ago. But following last week’s hearing in the Senate Committee on Environment and Agriculture plus new Senate leadership, he’s hopeful.

“It remains an uphill battle against a very difficult array of lobbyists and special interest groups,” said the legislator in an interview Sunday.

But he’s not throwing in the towel. Sen. Valarie Lawson is a co-sponsor of McKenney’s bill, a move she made prior to becoming Senate President. On Tuesday she reaffirmed her support.

She said in a statement,  “I am grateful for the leadership of Senator Mark McKenney in chairing the commission examining plastic bottle waste and developing the legislation that stemmed from the commission. The commission worked for almost two years to research and put forward thoughtful legislation to address this issue, which impacts every Rhode Island. I am a co-sponsor of his bill, and believe it is a very important conversation we are having in the Senate this session.”

 House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi released the following statement Tuesday: “I am keeping an open mind on the bottle bill heading into the House Environment Committee hearing and I plan to review the testimony carefully. I thank all the members of the House and Senate joint commission who put a great deal of time and effort studying this complex issue. There was not a consensus reached among the commission members and there was lot of advocacy and passion on both sides. I’ve heard from many consumers opposed to a bottle bill who view it as another tax.”

McKenney notes that Rhode Island and New Hampshire are the only two New England States without a bottle bill and it would be easy to leave things the way they are.  

“We don’t have to do this,” he said. “Our kids and grandkids can live with the decision we make.”

He paints a dim picture if the state chooses not to improve Rhode Island’s recycling rate, which he put between 14 and 26 percent based on the community.  Without an increase in recycling, disposing of trash will become increasingly costly, if not difficult, as the landfill fills up. Litter will increase and most disturbingly, micro plastics will increase in our environment.

Micro plastics

McKenney said “tons of micro plastics” are already in our food, soils, and Narragansett Bay. He argues we can continue adding to the problem and that “begs the question what kind of state are we leaving?”

As evidenced at last week’s hearing, there’s substantial opposition to a bottle bill.  

Representatives from the “Stop the Rhode Island Bottle Tax” coalition including consumers, small retailers, grocery stores, liquor stores, labor unions and beverage distributors, oppose the bill that would impose a refund of at least 10-cents on nearly all plastic, glass, and aluminum bottles and cans sold in Rhode Island. 

The coalition contends the fee would raise costs significantly on hundreds of everyday beverages “at a time when Rhode Islanders are struggling with higher costs for many essentials including food, housing and utilities,” according to a release.

The release notes the cost of a 24-pack of water bottles would go up by $2.40. The cost of a 12-pack of sports drinks would go up by $1.20.

 “This is not your grandfather’s bottle bill,” said McKenney.

He says technology has made refunds easy and that Oregon and Maine, where recycling rates are close to 90 percent have shown that bottle legislation does work.  He bristles at the reference that a deposit/return system is a tax since the deposit is retrievable.

Incentives and convenience he said are keys to making a bottle bill effective.

McKenney and the bill’s co-sponsor in the House, Rep. Carol Hagan McEntee co-chaired a study of bottle bills and efforts to improve recycling. The study found a five-cent refund is insufficient to motivate returns. Ten cents, however, is an incentive, they contend.

Returns made easy

As for convenience, McKenney touted the Green Bag program being used in Maine.  The ease of the program was demonstrated outside the State House last week by CLYNK, the company operating refund machines in Maine and New York. 

Cans, bottles and even those small nip bottles that escape scanning at Rhode Island Resource Recovery are placed in a green bag and deposited in the machine that scans an individualized bar code. The machine later credits the refund to a personal account or credit card.

McKenney said the beverage industry pays for the system in Maine. The benefit for the industry is the plastic that is recycled at a savings versus virgin plastic.

McKenney said he and McEntee, reached out to the beverage industry to ask them what they would like in a bottle bill.

“We got crickets,” he said.

In a release the coalition opposed to a bottle bill argues, “Bottle bills elsewhere have added unnecessary burdens on residents who are forced to take bags of bottles and cans to redemption centers to redeem them. This hurts most the busy families, seniors and low-income residents who may not have access to reliable transportation.”

McKenney acknowledges redeeming bottles can be a task, but it can become a routine that improves the environment and is better than the alternative.