Massachusetts bottle redemption centers haven't had a raise in 19 years.
The 2 1/4 cent fee those centers collect for each bottle and can they process hasn't risen since 1990, but gas prices, wages and other operating costs have not been so stagnant.
"We have employees we have to pay. We have rent we have to pay. We have a truck we have to pay," said Tom Casey, the owner of Bottle Bills & Family in Framingham. "How am I supposed to exist?"
Politicians and environmental advocates yesterday urged legislators to expand the state's recycling redemption program to raise those payments and to include water bottles and other non-carbonated drink containers.
"Most people find it appalling to see plastic bottles littering the streets," said state Rep. Thomas Stanley, D-Waltham, a sponsor of one of eight bills under consideration at the State House.
State Rep. Pam Richardson, D-Framingham, and Sen. Karen Spilka, D-Ashland, have filed legislation to raise the handling fee by a penny and require the rate to be reviewed every five years.
The legislation is a new step in what's been a long battle for redemption center operators, who say their cause has usually been overshadowed by debate on whether to broaden the bottle bill.
"It's like talking to a stone wall," said Michelle McLean, an employee at Waltham Bottle and Can Return.
Beverage distributors like Coca-Cola pay the handling fee. Distributors say they have limited capacity to absorb increases in the cost of paying retailers and redemption centers to handle bottle returns, costs that are passed on to consumers.
Containers covered under the current bottle bill have an 80 percent rate of recycling, as opposed to only about 35 percent for non-carbonated drink containers, Stanley said.
The bills also would require distributors to pick up containers from redemption centers and stores free of charge. Many distributors stopped picking up collected bottles and cans, forcing redemption centers to truck them long distances.
McLean said her Waltham business often has to take bottles as far as New Bedford and Taunton.
"A couple of months ago when the gas was high, it was killing us," she said. "When you're doing two trips a day, there's your profit."
Phil Sego, chairman of the Massachusetts Sierra Club's updated bottle bill campaign, said his organization supports raising the handling fee 1 cent.
Sego said the Sierra Club, however, is backing a bill proposed by Rep. Alice Wolf, D-Cambridge, that includes both the fee increase and expanding the types of containers accepted under the bottle bill, among other steps.
Redemption centers are more convenient for many consumers who have trouble returning bottles purchased from one store at another, Sego said. Without those centers, "our recycling rate is just going to plummet," he said.
Bottlers and distributors oppose the bills because they say they unfairly bear the costs of bottle bill expansion.
Brian Smith, Shaw's merchandising support manager, said the supermarket chain would most likely have to expand its 88 Massachusetts stores at an estimated cost of $75,000 to $100,000 per store if legislators expanded the bottle bill.
State House News Service material was used in this story. David Riley can be reached at 508-626-3919 or driley@cnc.com.
