Well-funded opponents of a ballot question to expand Massachusetts' bottle bill to include 5-cent deposits on bottled water, juice and sports drinks will begin a TV advertising campaign tomorrow to push their cause before the November election.
But Janet Domenitz, executive director of MassPIRG — part of a coalition of environmental groups supporting the bottle bill expansion — hopes that after an unsuccessful 10-year legislative push, voters will see through the "misleading TV ads" and pass the binding measure.
"You can certainly buy a lot of television with that kind of money, but this is a law that's been widely and broadly supported for years, so we're hoping the corrupting influence of big special interest money doesn't change the support for this bill," Domenitz said. "If the vote was taken before a bunch of misleading TV ads, we would win hands-down."
The American Beverage Association, a Washington, D.C.-based trade group for the non-alcoholic beverage industry, already has contributed $5 million to the "No on Question 2: Stop Forced Deposits" campaign, which has raised $5.4 million in total, according to the most recent campaign finance reports. Supermarkets including Stop & Shop, Big Y and Donelan's also have made large contributions.
The proposed law, which would take effect in April, also would require the state to adjust the deposit every five years to reflect consumer price index changes. And it would increase minimum handling fees paid by beverage distributors and bottlers.
"Question 2 costs a lot and doesn't do much of anything for recycling," said Nicole Giambusso, spokeswoman for the No on Question 2 group.
Passage would increase costs to grocers required to redeem the containers in their stores, according to Giambusso. "Those costs will trickle down to consumers and add nearly $60 million in grocery costs," she said. "And ... we'd only be getting an eighth of a percent of a recycling increase. The other alternative would be to expand curbside recycling, which a lot of communities have. (It) is three times cheaper."
Supporters of the bottle bill expansion have raised just $292,988, according to campaign finance reports. But Domenitz said the grass-roots coalition — which includes the League of Women Voters, Sierra Club, Massachusetts Audubon Society and Emerald Necklace Conservancy — is setting up a "town captain" structure where volunteers will work locally to get out the message in their own communities.
There's one data point that voters need to understand, she said: Carbonated beverage containers with the 5-cent deposit get recycled 80 percent of the time, while only 23 percent of non-deposit beverages are recycled.
"Curbside (recycling) is great, but it's not capturing these beverages," she said.
And anybody who leaves the house "doesn't need a study to back that up," according to Domenitz. "If your kid plays ball at a park or you walk your dog, or you go to the beach, or you live in the city, or you hike a trail, you've had the experience of seeing littered bottle water containers, sports drinks — the things that don't have a deposit."
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