|
April 27, 2008
First bottle bill passed more than 50 years ago
By JASON G. HOWE
Bottle bills are nothing new in New Hampshire, or for that matter, the United States.
Neighboring Vermont is widely credited with enacting the first "bottle bill," albeit one that didn't institute the deposit system employed by modern bottle bills like those in Massachusetts and Maine.
Vermont's first bottle bill passed in 1953, banning the sale of beer in nonrefillable bottles. It expired four years later.
The first "modern" bottle bill was passed in 1971 in Oregon, where it was called a deposit law, requiring refundable deposits on all beer and soft drink containers, including soda, juice and milk bottles.
In New England, Vermont passed its second bottle bill, a "deposit" bill this time, in 1973, followed by Maine in 1978 and Massachusetts in 1983, according to information from the Container Recycling Institute, a Connecticut-based nonprofit that supports such legislation. Its website is bottlebill.org.
Overall, 11 U.S. states have "bottle bills," according to the institute.
Barring Rhode Island's potential passage of a bottle bill, Hawaii's legislature most recently passed a measure requiring bottle deposits in 2002. Not including updates, it was the first such passage since California's adoption of a bottle bill law in 1986.
http://www.fosters.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080427/GJNEWS_01/255325698
|
