Apparently New Jersey is considering imposing a deposit on beverage containers in order to encourage an increase in recycling. I'm not really sure I can think of a stupider idea, ever, given the situation of recycling in some areas of New Jersey.
New Jerseyans may soon pay as much as 20 cents extra when buying beverages in bottles and cans as part of an effort to boost recycling and combat litter.
The Assembly environment committee is slated Monday to discuss a 10 cent deposit for bottles and cans less than 24 ounces and 20 cents for larger ones up to 3 liters.
OK, it's possible that even though people will likely still toss their Bud in the street someone will come by and pick it up to collect the dime. So that's the litter argument.
But the environmental argument doesn't wash for me. For one, there are many counties that have excellent recycling programs that will collapse under a deposit law. Currently paper, plastic and foam recycling is subsidized by the money generated from tin, steel and glass recycling plus a little tax money.
Remove tin, steel and glass from the recycling program stream and it will become so expensive that counties like Somerset and Middlesex will have to end or restructure the programs so much that they will lose their effectiveness.
Consumers would get the money back by returning the container to newly created redemption centers or to retailers.
So consumers can use gasoline to bring their beverage bottles to redemption centers to get their money back. What about chili cans? Plastic tomato soup bottles? Vegetable oil glass bottles? Where do those go?
If the counties and municipalities providing service have to reduce curbside pickup then people will have a choice -- put them in the trash or drive them to a second redemption center. Unless, of course, the deposit redemption centers also take no deposit containers. Which will make everything even more complex and confusing.
And it turns out that a "benefit" of the deposit is revenue for the state:
The bill also would let the state keep uncollected deposits and use the money for environmental projects such as land preservation, litter cleanup and park beautification. New York has had as much as $80 million in annual unredeemed deposits.
"We can get some money back into the state, which right now we're in dire need of, and secondly help keep New Jersey green," said Assemblywoman Valerie Vainieri Huttle, D-Bergen.
Huh? Keeping money from deposits on drink containers that were littered or put into landfills is a way to keep New Jersey green? Is it worth 10 cents into a mini-Superfund to put plastic bottles into the landfills?
We need money in the state to pay for environmental cleanup and preservation, sure. But this would be revenue based on anti-environmental behavior!
New Jersey is densely populated enough that we can handle curbside recycling. A bill requiring towns of a certain size or counties to create and manage a curbside recycling program subsidized by a split (ratio TBD) between property and state taxes would make the most sense. It would allow for all recyclable materials to be collected in one step at the home, and taken to one central separation point.
It would be significantly simpler, have a much greater level of efficiency, allow for collection of a larger number of material types, and provide a consistent program across the state.
But creating a statewide deposit program to improve recycling percentages based on what is inside the containers rather than the material that makes up the container just makes no sense to me. |
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