Prominent Mass. Bottler Against Expanded Bill

WORCESTER, Mass. (AP) — Worcester bottling company Polar Beverages is hoping to help defeat the latest efforts to expand the bottle bill.

The proposal would add water and juice bottles and other containers to the state’s five-cent return deposit program. The proposal has been repeatedly introduced, and now backers say they’ll put it on the 2012 ballot if lawmakers don’t pass it.

Advocates predict numerous benefits, including reduced litter and increased bottle recycling rates, without higher beverage costs. But opponents say the law would increase business costs and beverage prices, and such bottles are a minuscule percentage of the solid waste stream.

Executive Vice President Christopher Crowley of Polar, the nation’s largest independent soft drink bottler, tells the Telegram & Gazette (http://bit.ly/qr717a) the proposal would make an inefficient recycling system worse.

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Information from: Telegram & Gazette, http://www.telegram.com

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press.

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Posted by jcashman on Aug 21 2011. Filed under Business, Top Stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry