BOSTON – In a sign of the growing momentum for updating the state’s container deposit law, the campaign has announced that well over a majority of state senators have endorsed S.2149, sponsored by Senator Cindy Creem (Newton); a bill which would add water bottles and many other containers to the state’s bottle bill. Growing from a list of 14 Senate endorsers just a couple of months ago, the most recent additions of Sens. Paul Feeney (Foxborough), John Velis (Westfield), and Michael Rush (Boston) add to the chorus of support for the Bigger, Better Bottle Bill (H.3289/S.2149). The bill received a favorable report from the Joint Committee on Telecommunications, Utilities and Energy in January 2022, and is currently before the Senate Ways and Means Committee.
The Better Bottle Bill, sponsored on the House side by Rep. Marjorie Decker (Cambridge), aims to modernize Massachusetts’ nearly 40 year-old Bottle Bill law. The new legislation would expand the Massachusetts Bottle Bill to include more types of beverage containers, like water bottles and “nips,” and it would increase the deposit from 5 cents to 10 cents. The bill has been endorsed by 81 state legislators across both the Senate and the House of Representatives.
Senator Cynthia Creem:
“I hear from my community every single day that they want to see our city, and our state, committed to environmental protection, reuse, and recycling. Updating our bottle bill is a simple and powerful way to reduce the trash and litter that comes from single use plastic and other types of beverage containers. It would also reduce greenhouse gas emissions and help the Commonwealth achieve its climate change obligations.”
Representative Marjorie Decker:
“Reducing plastic in our environment is not just a climate issue, it’s a public health issue. It is time for public health to win, it is time for climate and the environment to win and that’s what is going to happen when we update this bill and we pass it.”
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