Expanded Bottle Bill to Snare State's Dairy Distribution Industry

Trash should be a One Way Street!

Would you bring garbage from your trash can back into your house? Would you want restaurants to bring their trash from dumpsters back into their kitchens?

Why then should New York citizens be forced to bring empty, dirty, filthy, unsanitary beverage containers from our homes back to places where we buy our fresh and perishable food? It doesn't make sense, and if in fact the bottle bill deposit law is expanded to include thousands of new types of beverages and containers, places such as supermarkets, bodegas, convenience stores and delis - whether these stores originally sold the products or not will be overflowing with this garbage. Do we really want the stock boy who handles the dirty returns also stocking your food shelves?

The 25 year old state bottle bill should not be expanded. Since that law was passed, recycling efforts in our counties have successfully expanded and proliferated, and the public has learned how to recycle.

The distribution of food should be a one way street: from manufacturer, to distributor, to retailers, to consumers' homes, to the curb, then to recycling centers or the land fill. Trash should not be allowed to re-enter our fresh food centers and markets, at the very least it is unsanitary at worst it could become a public health threat.

If the bottle bill is expanded, hundreds of new beverage companies doing business in our state- including milk distributors who have been exempt - will now be caught up in the bottle bill deposit law net. These businesses will not have the benefit of using some of the unclaimed deposits to help offset new expenses generated to comply with an expanded law such as the need to purchase trucks and hire labor to pick up returns, create storage space, make accounting system changes, new paperwork and record keeping, management, reporting and inventory control or third party handling fees.

If Governor Paterson's bottle bill is expanded consumers will end up paying more for beverages - and not just the extra $0.05 cent deposit. In fact there is a real cost for beverage processors, distributors and retailers to administer the current bottle deposit law. These costs then have to be passed on to consumers in the way of higher prices for the beverages requiring deposits.

Those who are concerned about the environment should ask the question: is the bottle bill a clean environmental effort, a true recycling program, an effort to punish litterbugs, or just a means of generating funds for the DEC on the backs of consumers who don't consider a nickel worthwhile? Our state should consider a more comprehensive approach to litter control, recycling programs, trash removal and other ways to support the DEC's efforts. An expanded and current bottle bill is a true sanitation concern, bureaucratic business nightmare and fee on consumers. We all want less trash on our streets; do we really want more in our food markets?

Visit www.realrecyclingreform .com for more sensible information. Tell your legislators and Governor Paterson, for our public's better health and safety lets recycle and find better solutions than an expanded bottle bill, which is just another government tax on businesses.

Bruce W. Krupke, Executive Vice President for Northeast Dairy Foods Association, Inc., a membership trade association representing milk processors and distributors.