Litter is not only unslightly. Litter gets into our lakes, streams and rivers and pollutes the water. Litter creates havoc with storm water systems and the City has spent a lot of money on correcting damage from litter, leaves and yard waste etc. and private drainage systems are also damaged.
For several years, the Tennessee Legislature has considered a "bottle bill" which would require a deposit for bottles etc. (I remember when I was a child picking up bottles for the .02 deposit refund!)
I became a real believer last year when I was in a large city where the state (or at least the City) had a "bottle bill". While I am sure the stores got tired of street people bringing in bottles and cans for refunds, the city was very clean and it obviously showed.
Quite frankly, I was much more impressed with the city (Detroit) than I expected to be. While I was impressed with the friendliness of the residents, I was also impressed by how clean the city was.
The information below was prepared by Jesse McCabe and is being submitted by Natural Resources Director Eric Bridges to the Natural Resources Board for a recommendation to the Board of Commissioners on support of the "bottle bill" which is up for consideration this year.
1. Discarded drink containers make up over one half of roadside litter volume.
2. States with beverage container deposit legislation eliminated 80 to 90% of beverage container litter.
3. A University of Tennessee survey determined 80 percent of registered voters support beverage container deposit legislation.
4. Thirteen states have successful beverage container deposit programs.
5. Beverage container deposit legislation will create jobs
6. States with beverage container deposit legislation have seen an overall reduction in litter in general as well as an increase in overall recycling.
7. The re-use of recycled materials saves energy by eliminating costs incurred by using virgin materials.
A 5 cents deposit is placed on drink containers of 2 liters volume or less, excepting liquor, wine and milk containers. Also a beverage container fee of 3 cents is collected by the State of Tennessee from the distributors of drink container products. This 3 cents fee is collected at the beginning of the production cycle.
At present beer and soft drink distributors pay an up front fee or tax on their products to offset the costs of picking up litter. This fee is divided up among the 95 counties in Tennessee using a formula based on population and mile of road. This fee will be eliminated.
The litter funding will be done thru the proceeds of the container deposit program. The handling fee (officially called the "beverage container fee") is essentially an administrative fee paid by beverage distributors for each container they manufacture or import for sale in Tennessee. The fee is collected by the state at the beginning of the production cycle, and paid out to the redemption center at the end of the cycle. The fee also pays for all personnel, administrative and other operating costs of the program.
Ultimately it covers the enormous costs of keeping 200,000 tons a year of packaging (emphasis mine) out of our landfills and off of our roadsides, and sees that it is returned to the manufacturing stream. The amount of the handling fee is 3¢. This is the recommended minimum if a state wants to operate an efficient program and ensure an adequate network of independent redemption centers. A portion of any unused fees is rebated to the distributors at the end of the year.
No point of sale establishment will be required to accept return containers. They may opt to do so if they wish. Collection centers will take a variety forms and will be run as private businesses. These could take the form of stand alone redemption centers, micro-redemption centers as an adjunct to an established business, reverse vending machines or mobile redemption centers. All redemption sites will be monitored by the state to ensure sanitary standards and locations.
Potential Disadvantages
1. Inconvenience: will the public adapt to saving containers and “schlepping” them to the redemption centers.
2. Increase in price of beverages: a possibility, but not proven by states with container deposit legislation.
3. Another tax: The handling fee is already in place for most beverages, only those who do not redeem their container will be “taxed”.
4. Fraud: Fraudulent redemption of more than 24 containers can result in fines varying from $100 per container to up to $25000.
5. Loss of Keep America Beautiful Funds: Funds lost thru the repeal of current legislation funding for KAB will be replaced thru un-claimed deposits of new container deposit legislation.
The reduction of drink containers along Lakeland roadsides will lower labor costs in litter control and the redemption of deposit containers will provide income. Aesthetic improvement of Lakeland’s roadsides is not quantifiable in terms of money.
In Order for this legislation to become law it must pass thru several state house and senate sub-committees. In the House the first hurdle is Local Government sub-committee. In the Senate it is the Environment, Conservation & Tourism Committee.
The bill for the 2009 Session is expected to be the Tennessee Beverage Container Recycling Act.
Listed below are committee members who will play a role in deciding the fate of bill. Please note there are several local legislators supporting this bill.
2008 Local Government Subcommittee of the
To call toll-free, dial 800-449-8366, then, when prompted,
dial the last five digits of the member's phone number.
| Member's name | District | Hometown | Legislature* | Work |
| D-88 | | (615) 741-4453 | (901) 272-7884 | |
| D-71 | | (615) 741-2007 | (731) 926-1120 | |
| D-66 | | (615) 741-3979 |
| |
| R-73 | | (615) 741-7475 | (731) 668-4544 | |
| D-98 | | (615) 741-4575 |
| |
| R-21 | | (615) 741-3736 | (865) 986-4201 | |
| R-96 | Cordova | (615) 741-1920 | (901) 818-6192 | |
| D-50 | Joelton | (615) 741-4317 | (615) 862-5314 | |
| R-14 | | (615) 741-2264 | (865) 215-2360 | |
| D-13 | | (615) 741-2031 |
| |
| R-95 | Collierville | (615) 741-1866 | (901) 853-1348 | |
| D-60 | Hermitage | (615) 741-6959 | (615) 874-8653 | |
| D-11 | Greeneville | (615) 741-6871 |
| |
| R-97 | | (615) 741-8201 |
| |
| R-30 | | (615) 741-1934 |
| |
| R-70 | Hohenwald | (615) 741-7476 | (931) 796-5943 | |
| R-68 | | (615) 741-4341 |
| |
| D-10 | | (615) 741-6877 | (423) 586-6942 | |
| D-67 | | (615) 741-2043 |
| |
| D-58 | | (615) 741-3853 | (615) 385-0590 |
* Sponsor
Senate Environment, Conservation and Tourism Committee
To call toll-free, dial 800-449-8366, then, when prompted,
dial the last five digits of the member's phone number
| Member's name | District | Hometown | Legislature* | Work |
| D-12 | Wartburg | (615) 741-1449 | (423) 346-2300 | |
| R-9 | | (615) 741-3730 | (423) 479-2157 | |
| D-25 | Dickson | (615) 741-4499 | (615) 740-5578 | |
| D-14 | McMinnville | (615) 741-6694 |
| |
| R-8 | | (615) 741-2427 |
| |
| D-24 | | (615) 741-4576 | (731) 364-5415 | |
| R-13 | | (615) 741-6853 | (615) 896-5440 | |
| R-1 | | (615) 741-3851 | (423) 581-6206 | |
| R-4 | Maynardville | (615) 741-2061 | (865) 992-6254 |
* Sponsor
For more contact information, go to www.legislature.state.tn.us
