Chances of a bottle-redemption bill passing this year look slim

PROVIDENCE – With the General Assembly session entering its final weeks, the chances of a bottle bill winning passage this year aren’t looking good.

Supporters' hope of creating a redemption program to drive up recycling rates for beverage containers was that a special commission tasked with studying the idea would reach consensus early enough in the session for a bill to work through the legislative process.

But after six months of meetings, there are still divisions among members of the legislature’s plastic-bottle waste commission.

While environmental advocates and most of the lawmakers who sit on the panel, including the two co-chairs, have expressed strong support for a redemption program, representatives of the beverage industry have reservations about how much it would cost to set up and how exactly it would work.

“I think we’ve done good work, but I don’t think we’re finished,” Tom Papa, executive director of the Rhode Island Beverage Association, said at the group’s most recent meeting last Monday.

Nevertheless, Rep. Carol Hagan McEntee, the South Kingstown Democrat who co-chairs the commission with Sen. Mark McKenney, said Friday that she’s drafting legislation that she plans to introduce in the coming days.

“I’m sure there will be opposition, but I want to keep the conversation going,” she said in an interview.

Do redemption programs in other states drive up recycling rates?

It wouldn’t be the first time McEntee has introduced the legislation. Last year, after the bill stalled in committee, the General Assembly formed the plastic-bottle waste commission to look at what’s worked in other states and figure out the best path forward for Rhode Island.

Bottle bills are a form of what’s known as extended producer responsibility, a policy that puts the burden on companies to manage the waste their products generate. They work by charging a fee to consumers when they buy a beverage and then refunding them that money when the empty container is returned to be recycled. 

Nine of the 10 states with the highest recycling rates in the country have bottle bills, according to The 50 States of Recycling, a nationwide analysis of recycling systems. The recycling rates for the top states range from 39% to 65%. In contrast, Rhode Island, which ranks 26th in the nation, has a rate of just 17%. 

Redemption programs boost recycling by segregating beverage containers from other types of material, making them easier to reuse. For example, because glass bottles that pass through the single-stream recycling system in Rhode Island get mixed with fiber, plastic and other materials, none are recycled. Instead, they’re ground up and used as cover on the Central Landfill in Johnston.

However, in Oregon, which has the most effective redemption program in the nation, the recycling rate for glass bottles is 51%.

At last week's commission meeting, supporters of a bottle bill said the Oregon program, which is run by an independent nonprofit, or one in Maine that works with a private company, could serve as models.

“All the evidence points to the fact that the states that are doing the best have bottle bills,” said Rep. Tina Spears, a Charlestown Democrat.

Commission also looking at litter programs, public education

The recommendations being considered by the commission aren’t confined to a bottle bill.

They also include doing more to educate the public about plastic waste and expanding the state campaign against litter that has been championed by Gov. Dan McKee. The beverage industry representatives said those measures are what they would favor.

However, critics say that the litter program is limited and that the cleanups it pays for aren’t as effective as stopping plastic pollution at the source.

“It has its merits. It’s a positive thing,” said Jed Thorp, the Rhode Island director of Clean Water Action. “But there’s really no evidence that it’s going to have the kind of impact on the litter problem that a bottle bill would have.”

McEntee agreed that more needs to be done beyond cleaning up litter.

“It’s not going to stop people from throwing things out the window,” she said. “It’s just going to get more volunteers out there to pick it up.”

After the meeting, Thorp said there was still hope for a bottle bill this session, though he acknowledged the timing didn't favor anything moving forward.

McKenney, who said he would be in favor of a bill, agreed.

“Is it a little late in the game, making it difficult on a practical basis? Yes,” the Warwick Democrat said. “But I think it’s important that the discussion continue.”

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: 5 cents for bottles in RI? Bottle bill passage unlikely this year.