Letter: Vote yes on bottle bill question

Given all the controversial issues facing us in the coming election, there is one issue that should be, in the common parlance, a “no-brainer:” a yes vote on Question 2, the Bottle Bill.

The bill would revise the existing one to include bottled water, tea, sports drinks and other beverages, which now most often end up in our city drains, parks and nature centers. We should know. Boston Nature Center volunteers and staff spend countless hours picking up these bottles that have floated down drain pipes and ended up in Canterbury Brook and on the banks of its tributaries. Question 2 would reduce this litter and increase recycling rates.

Currently, even with curbside collection for these kinds of bottles in half our cities and towns, only 23 percent of bottles without deposits are recycled, compared with 80 percent of redeemable bottles.

When the first bottle bill was passed, sports drinks and bottled water were not the popular drinks that they are today. We need to update the bottle bill, so that we can keep our parks, rivers and nature centers clean, and save money in the process. It is indeed a no-brainer.

Julie Brandlen

Anne and Peter Brooke Director

Boston Nature Center

Mattapan

Editor’s Note: The writer is a JP resident.

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