Legislative Hearing On Bottle Bills February 11 – Please Send Testimony
When: Thursday, February 11 at 6 PM
Where: Live streamed at http://rilegislature.gov/CapTV/Pages/default.aspx
Why: Let the legislature know you support House bills 5113 and 5280. These “Bottle Bills” can make our roads cleaner and safer, reduce litter and marine debris, increase recycling rates, protect our environment and natural resources, and save taxpayers money.
The State House is closed to in-person testimony so you must send written testimony by email to lmansolillo@rilegislature.gov before 11 a.m. on the day of the hearing.
Include your name and address in the email and explain that you are in favor of House Bills 5113 and 5280 and why. Send a separate email for each bill.
If you want to give verbal testimony, also send an email to lmansolillo@rilegislature.gov by 11 a.m. on the day of the hearing with the following information
Bill # you are testifying on.
For
Your Name and Phone number (to be reached for your testimony)
Affiliation: (if any)
Sample Emails To Send
Send your own message or feel free to use all or parts of the below emails
Sample email to send to lmansolillo@rilegislature.gov
Subject: House Bill 5113
Include in the body of email:
House Bill 5113, Miniature Alcoholic Beverage Container Act of 2021
I am for this bill
Your name
Your home address including town and state
Dear Honorable Members of the House Committee on Environment and Natural Resources:
The roads in Charlestown are littered with thousands of “nip” bottles. Each of these bottles represents not just a single piece of litter, but also someone who is drinking and driving. Nips are a product designed to break the law that prohibits drinking alcohol while driving. The container can be opened, drunk, and tossed out the window in not more than a minute.
Every day in Charlestown many of our residents take a bag along on their daily walk to pick up roadside trash. A 50 cent deposit on “nips” would reward those good citizens who pick up roadside trash and provide incentive to others to join in clean ups.
A 50 cent deposit might actually discourage some drinkers from tossing their empty alcohol containers out the window in the first place. The incentive to save money might be greater than the incentive to hide evidence.
Once the product is not seen as disposable, nips might lose some of their ability to facilitate drunk driving, making our roads not just cleaner, but also safer.
Please recommend House bill 5113, the Miniature Alcoholic Beverage Container Act of 2021, to the full House and Senate for a vote and passage.
Thank you,
Your name
Sample email to send to lmansolillo@rilegislature.gov
Subject: House Bill 5280
Include in the body of email:
House Bill 5280, Beverage Container Deposit Recycling Act of 2021
I am for this bill
Your name
Your home address including town and state
Dear Honorable Members of the House Committee on Environment and Natural Resources:
The roads in Charlestown are littered with beverage containers. We have yearly town wide cleanups and many people pick up roadside litter every day, but no matter how many times we clean, the litter returns in just a matter of days.
Following the implementation of bottle bills in other states, container litter has been reduced by 69 to 84 percent, while total litter has been reduced by 34 to 64 percent.
Requiring refundable deposits on beverage containers will place the obligation to return the used container on the purchaser and not require the public to undertake the continued clean-up of these containers when discarded along roadsides.
Increasing recycling of these products will help to extend the life-span of Rhode Island’s central landfill.
A bottle bill will also help to keep plastic waste out of streams, rivers and the ocean where it harms wildlife and pollutes our waterways.
Please recommend House bill 5280, the Beverage Container Deposit Recycling Act of 2021, to the full House and Senate for a vote and passage.
Thank you,
Your name
February 11, 2021 @ 10:41 am
in my opinion a .50 cent deposit is over doing it. a .50 cent deposit on a 1.00 purchase?
could make the difference between the bill passing or not passing in my opinion.
.05 or .10 cents would be sufficient to create incentive for folks to pick up nips with other cans and bottles for redeeming. much easier to carry than a beer or soda can. I didn’t realize there were two bills and that one was for .50 cents. i sent my letter in support of a general bottle, can, and nip bill and i figured it would be 05 to .10 cents like the surrounding states. good luck. id be very surprised if a .50 cent bill is passed. at .50 cents i’ll be walking the roads myself
February 10, 2021 @ 1:33 pm
I grew up in Massachusetts where there has been a refundable bottle deposit law in effect since 1983. I can attest that it has had an incredibly positive impact on the amount of bottle litter. I remember clearly as a kid being excited to make a few bucks collecting cans and recycling them for ¢5. Soon, there were fewer and fewer cans to collect along the road, and while it killed our candy fund as kids, in hindsight it was such an improvement. As a college student, cans and bottles from a “get together” were saved, rinsed, and recycled to fund our next “get together”. I realized these are light-hearted stories regarding a serious bill, but light-hearted or not, they are a true account of how successful bills of this type can be.
February 10, 2021 @ 11:41 am
Sent to lmansolillo@rilegislature.gov for February 11 hearing
We live along South County Trail in Charlestown and witness reckless disregard for our environment with the careless disposal of litter along our scenic roadway. As a corrective measure, we ask that you support House Bill 5280 “Beverage Container Deposit Recycling Act” to discourage this practice. Thank you for giving our request your attention.
February 10, 2021 @ 10:27 am
I believe “nips” should be discontinued and not sold at all!
February 10, 2021 @ 10:16 am
I understand the desire for this legislation. But if you can’t enforce it I don’t see the point. The people who don’t care whether or not they throw something on the grown will continue to do so. Because they just don’t care. Those of us that do will pay the extra price on nipps even though we are not the ones throwing nipps or bottles on the ground.
February 10, 2021 @ 11:32 am
The deposit is refundable when you bring the bottles to a store, redemption center, or a reverse vending machine. And those who pick up litter will get a small reward. There are two bottle bills, one for nips and another for all beverage containers. I wrote in support of both of them. This law is not one that needs enforcing, the deposit is paid first by the distributer who then gets it from the customer who then gets it back when the bottle is redeemed.