GA Bottle Bill:
Re-use Or Lose

Environmentalists and environmental groups across the state are hoping the next legislative session will bring a "bottle bill" to Georgia.
A bottle bill is “a law that requires a minimum refundable deposit on beer, soft drink and other beverage containers in order to ensure a high rate of recycling or reuse,” according to BottleBill.org, the Container Recycling Institute·s web site.
By reviving the once common practice of returning empty beverage containers for a refund, the bill would divert landfill use, reduce litter, conserve energy and natural resources, and create new businesses and jobs, says Bill Sheehan, coordinator of Athens' GrassRoots Recycling Network.
“It would be, by far, the most effective method of increasing recycling,” he says.
GrassRoots Recycling, Waste Not Georgia and other groups focus primarily on the recycling and reusing of plastic. There has been a major increase in plastic containers, surpassing the use of aluminum cans and glass bottles, Sheehan says. In addition, Georgia residents recycle just 20 percent of the bottles they use, while the other 80 percent end up in landfills, Sheehan says.
Along with advocating the bottle bill, environmental groups are encouraging bottling companies to reuse returned plastic bottles.
“The used plastic can be put back into bottles over and over again," Sheehan says.
“Reusing is so much better than recycling,” says Crystal Leaver, the co-executive coordinator for the University of Georgia·s Students for Environmental Awareness. The group has held demonstrations for many years promoting the bottle bill and protesting against Coca-Cola for not using recycled plastic in its bottles.
The Coca-Cola Bottling Company, located in Atlanta, is the strongest opponent of the bottle bill and has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to fight it, Sheehan says. Since most of the bill's supporters are volunteers without much money to work with, it's a difficult battle.
“It is considered suicide to cross Coca-Cola·s boundaries,” he says. “They play hardball.”
Coca-Cola, other bottling companies and grocers oppose the bill because they think it will cost a lot more money and will be more work for them, Leaver says.
“I don·t think they want to be responsible for (the returned bottles).”
A Coca-Cola representative had not returned calls for comment at presstime. A statement from the company·s web site reads: “A deposit-refund system is a much less efficient way to handle recyclables than a comprehensive recycling program accepting many materials.”
Opponents think a bottle bill would also undercut curbside recycling efforts, Sheehan says.
“The arguments against (the bottle bill) are really weak,” says Leaver, adding that states which currently have bottle bills have more curbside recycling and a higher recycling rate than those without.
There are 10 states with bottle bills, concentrated mainly in the Northeast. In 1971, Oregon became the first to adopt such a measure, and California passed the most recent one in the mid-1980s.
There have been many bottle bill proposals in Georgia since the late 1970s, the first coming from the Georgia Department of Transportation along with the Georgia Conservancy. A 1997 bill by State Sen. Donzella James (D-College Park) made it further in the legislature than any other, Sheehan says.
Bottle bill supporters are looking for “someone with weight in the legislature” to introduce the bill again, he says. Sheehan thinks Doug Haines· coming induction into the State Senate may be a boost.
“Having Doug Haines in the Senate is giving us new hope.” (Katy Stillerman)

Forest Heights
Losing Forest

A new residential development may be taking a lot of the forest out of Forest Heights.
It's hard to imagine a 21-home subdivision replacing the wooded area behind Gwen Hirsch and Martin Kallins' house on Sherwood Drive, but pink survey ribbons tied to low branches signify future streets and property lines of "Escoe Estates."
Two deer wander past as Hirsch and Kallins point out some larger trees that will be cleared.
"What I want to know," Hirsch says, "is where are the deer supposed to go?"
Hirsch first heard about the development from a neighbor who talked to surveyors. Otherwise she says she wouldn't have known about it until construction began.
The preliminary plans for Escoe Estates show the west edge of the subdivision abutting the Middle Oconee River. Approximately ten lots will be backed up to the North Athens bypass, a four-lane divided highway.
At present, the 15-acre tract is covered with trees, giving Forest Heights residents some buffer from the noise of the bypass. Traffic can be heard from Hirsch's back yard.
"The amount of trees they'll cut down will make the noise much louder," Hirsch says. "I can't imagine anyone wanting to live there."
In a letter addressed to Athens-Clarke County Planning Director John Stockbridge, Hirsch highlighted her concerns.
The quantity and quality of drinking water are at risk due to "the inevitable sedimentation of the Middle Oconee River as a result of building houses on the steeply sloped area adjacent to the river," Hirsch wrote. She's also worried about the risk of leaks from sewage lines installed next to the river, and with the loss of greenspace the development will cause.
Hirsch sent copies of her letter to the ACC Planning Department, Mayor Doc Eldridge, and every ACC Commissioner. Hirsch received no response; she says no one at the Planning Department would return her phone calls.
ACC Planner Jane Shedd says there is no apparent danger to the Middle Oconee River.
"There are requirements that the developer has to follow in their construction concerning sedimentation," says Shedd. "I don't know that anyone can say that [sedimentation of the river] is inevitable."
Shedd also points out that the property is zoned for single-family housing.