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URGE YOUR ASSEMBLYMEMBER TO SUPPORT CLEANER COMMUNIITES AND MORE RECYCLING BY VOTING YES FOR THE BIGGER BETTER BOTTLE BILL
The bigger better bottle bill will be coming up for a floor vote in the Assembly when legislators return from the legislative break. Call your assemblymember and urge them to vote yes on this critical legislation! It is okay to call in evenings and weekends and leave a message, those calls are just as important. We need to make our voices heard and let them know that this is a bill that needs to happen this year.
To find your Assemblymember's contact information, please go to www.assembly.state.ny.us, click on "assemblymembers," click on your senator and click on "contact."
Action Needed
Please call or write your State Senator in Support of this bill. For information on how, please see our legislative page.
For more information contact
Legislative office: 518-426-9144, Theresa Cassiack, Legislative Associate, theresa.cassiack@sierraclub.org
Thank you for you time.
Background
We all share responsibility for keeping our communities clean and healthy. But each year, state lawmakers fail to close the "litter loophole," nearly two billion bottles and cans end up in the trash or polluting our state's rivers, streams and neighborhoods. It is time for the Assembly and Senate to update the most successful anti-pollution law in New York's history by passing the Bigger Better Bottle Bill!
The bottle bill is New York's most effective litter prevention and recycling program. As soon as the law went into effect, New Yorkers could see the difference – fewer bottles and cans along roadsides, less broken glass in streets and playgrounds, cleaner beaches and parks. Driven by the nickel deposit, more than 80 million bottles and cans have been returned and recycled instead of polluting natural areas or ending up in landfills. The 70 percent return rate enjoyed by the bottle bill is far greater than New York's average recycling rate.
The "Bigger Better Bottle Bill" (A.2517C/S.1290C) introduced by Assemblyman Thomas P. DiNapoli and Senator Kenneth LaValle would:
Update the law to include non-carbonated beverages, with the exception of dairy products, wine, liquor, and specific products like baby formulas and nutritional supplements. According the to the Container Recycling Institute, this could capture about two billion bottles and cans per year that would otherwise end up clogging our landfills or polluting our rivers, streams and communities.
Requires that unclaimed deposits - currently kept by the beer and soda companies - go to the state's Environmental Protection Fund to support recycling programs and other needs. This could generate as much as $179 million a year to help protect New York's environment.
In addition, the bill helps supermarkets and small businesses comply with the law by providing increased handling fees, small business assistance grants, and lower thresholds for NYC stores and tough penalties for fraud.
The bigger better bottle bill will make our communities cleaner, increase recycling and build on an existing system of redemption.
The deposit is the most effective way of ensuring that bottles and cans get returned and recycled, rather than trashed. We all benefit from cleaner communities!
Your Assemblymember has the power to make this happen. So please make a phone call and tell them to vote yes for the bigger better bottle bill.
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Photo: Don Pachner