Pennsylvania Lawmaker Proposes Bottle, Can Deposit Bill

Pennsylvania Rep. Wendy Ullman has introduced a bill that would encourage residents in the state to recycle and reward them for doing so.

Under House Bill 1322, consumers in Pennsylvania would pay a 5-cent deposit per beverage container at the retailer or distributor. As an incentive to recycle, consumers would get that 5 cents per container back if they take them to a bottle redemption center.

However, Erie News Now reports that if consumers don’t return their glass or plastic bottles and/or aluminum cans, the 5-cent deposit they paid per container would be claimed by the state and put into the Hazardous Sites Cleanup Fund.

Erie News has more information:

A program encouraging recycling could be making its way to Pennsylvania in the near future. Representative Wendy Ullman introduced House Bill 1322 as a way to encourage Pennsylvania residents to recycle, and reward them for doing so.

“What I am proposing to do is create a five cent beverage bottle Bill which would have a redemption process,” Rep. Ullman (D-Bucks) explains.

Under this legislation, consumers in Pennsylvania would pay a 5 cent deposit per beverage container at the retailer or distributor. But as an incentive to recycle, consumers would get that five cents per container back if they take them to a bottle redemption center. PennDOT spends more than 10 million dollars a year on litter cleanup, and Rep. Ullman says this would reduce that figure significantly.

Read the full article here.