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Gov. Jack Markell earlier this week vetoed a bill, passed by the General Assembly at the end of the legislative session, which would repeal the state’s 5-cent deposit on beverage containers.
Markell argues that repealing the “bottle bill” doesn’t give consumers adequate opportunities to properly recycle their bottles. He contends the program has encouraged recycling and cut down on littering.
For as long as I can remember, I’ve had to pay an additional 5 cents every time I’ve purchased a bottle.
And for as long as I have lived in Delaware, paying the nominal bottle deposit hasn’t encouraged me to try to get that charge back.
In its current form, the bottle deposit program virtually is non-existent. Any attempt to collect the deposit — except at liquor stores — is a process wrought in confusion and inconvenience. Stores do not have a designated area where customers may bring their empty bottles, and I’ve yet to see any shoppers walking into a supermarket seeking deposits back on soda bottles.
With no streamlined process in place, the deposit seems like more of a donation than anything else.
Reclamation centers at supermarkets, equipped with bottle-crushing machines programmed to dispense the refund, seem to work in other states. If keeping the bottle deposit intact is something important to Markell and bolstering the outdated program is a priority, he may want to go see how it’s done elsewhere.
However, the argument that without a bottle deposit program customers will not have adequate ways to properly recycle is unfounded. The program is inadequate as a whole.
There are recycling containers less than a mile away from our Dover Post office and my DSWA curbside recycling container is filled to the brim every other week. Recycling options exist, just not within the bottle bill.
And living on a country road, I can attest that the bottle deposit apparently does nothing to discourage people from tossing their empty beer and soda bottles — and a litany of other items one would never think to throw out of a car window — on my lawn and in my driveway.
Email Maureen Raitz at maureen.raitz@doverpost.com.
Gov. Jack Markell earlier this week vetoed a bill, passed by the General Assembly at the end of the legislative session, which would repeal the state’s 5-cent deposit on beverage containers.
Markell argues that repealing the “bottle bill” doesn’t give consumers adequate opportunities to properly recycle their bottles. He contends the program has encouraged recycling and cut down on littering.
For as long as I can remember, I’ve had to pay an additional 5 cents every time I’ve purchased a bottle.
And for as long as I have lived in Delaware, paying the nominal bottle deposit hasn’t encouraged me to try to get that charge back.
In its current form, the bottle deposit program virtually is non-existent. Any attempt to collect the deposit — except at liquor stores — is a process wrought in confusion and inconvenience. Stores do not have a designated area where customers may bring their empty bottles, and I’ve yet to see any shoppers walking into a supermarket seeking deposits back on soda bottles.
With no streamlined process in place, the deposit seems like more of a donation than anything else.
Reclamation centers at supermarkets, equipped with bottle-crushing machines programmed to dispense the refund, seem to work in other states. If keeping the bottle deposit intact is something important to Markell and bolstering the outdated program is a priority, he may want to go see how it’s done elsewhere.
However, the argument that without a bottle deposit program customers will not have adequate ways to properly recycle is unfounded. The program is inadequate as a whole.
There are recycling containers less than a mile away from our Dover Post office and my DSWA curbside recycling container is filled to the brim every other week. Recycling options exist, just not within the bottle bill.
And living on a country road, I can attest that the bottle deposit apparently does nothing to discourage people from tossing their empty beer and soda bottles — and a litany of other items one would never think to throw out of a car window — on my lawn and in my driveway.
Email Maureen Raitz at maureen.raitz@doverpost.com.
