To The Editor:
In response to a pair of letters printed here advocating expansion of Vermont’s bottle bill, I offer a different perspective.
Vermont’s bottle bill was passed in 1973. It was passed as an anti-litter bill that along with Vermont’s anti-billboard law helped to keep our roadways and hillsides clean and green.
There were no real recycling programs in Vermont at the time so the returnable bottles were a special segment of the waste stream being dealt with while so many more were not.
As we have moved from the 1970s to present day, there are recycling programs all over Vermont, even in rural areas now, and the people who run them are the experts on how to handle these reclaimed materials. They want the metal from the bottle deposits as it helps them fund the other parts of their recycling program. And they are better suited to deal with the glass and plastic of the other redeemable containers.
And besides, as a retailer trying to maintain a clean and sanitary food-selling establishment, that goal would be better served not having that trash stored in my building.
So, in my opinion, Vermont’s bottle bill should not be expanded but eliminated and beverage containers should be recycled through mandatory recycling for both households and businesses alike.
And, in this train of thought, I would like to make this announcement. Mehuron’s has had a reverse bottle redemption machine installed at the far right-hand side of our building. Five cent redeemable bottles and cans can be put into that machine for redemption. The machine will give you a receipt that you may take into the store for your cash. As of the end of this day, Thursday, December 14, you will no longer be able to bring 5 cent deposit bottles into the store for redemption.
Another benefit of this for us is that we will have some space in the store freed up for other uses so look for some new and exciting things to be happening in the store as we get into 2018.
Tom Mehuron
Mehuron’s Supermarket
Waitsfield
