Does this make sense:  

In the progressive state of Massachusetts, only bottles containing carbonated liquids include 5 cent deposits at purchase.  Question #2 asks to amend this 30 year old arcane law to include all other bottles (water, fruit juice, sports drinks and all other flat sugary crap). According to the Mass Audubon – only 23% of containers without deposit are recycled, versus 80% of those with deposits.

Litter is an ecological and societal epidemic:

Remember this? 

We may have come a longway in cleaning-up our impact, but what we’ve not fully materialized is the global ripple effect we imprint from the Northeast, and how our efforts now will fundamentally be mirrored to save ecological and environmental health through-out the planet. I often get the question, I’m just one person, what can I do? Effectively, we must all realize “we” in the Northeast represent the future of our planet whether you like it not. Your role is to help define a successful proof case for everyone else to use at a later date. It’s scale, both population and lifestyle, that needs our help – and we begin by cleaning-up our own backyard. 

What to do:

Immediately (next Tuesday), we Commonwealth folks need to vote YES on #2.  Longterm, we need better bills.  Updated with incentives and context for a modern world.  The millions spent to stop this bill has been footed by bottling and producers, those who don’t want the added consumer friction of a “carbonation tax” (deposit) on their flat-line products, and from grocers who don’t want to deal with cleaning up the deposit waste stream that this proposed bill would intensify in each of their stores.  The lack of foresight when constructing this very important bill, again with much larger implications that just Massachusetts, is what truly gets my goat!  Updating to a transactional based incentive program that would take advantage of increasing the bottle bill deposit to a dime (curator suggestion) – grocers could reap the benefit of revenue instead of reimbursements for operational expense, and potentially support instead of oppose through better utilization of environmental advocacy outreach to their increasingly aware customers.

Take a deep breath; then, we all share accountability:

I once received some great advice that I aspire to implement daily. When dealing with your kids, no matter their age, you must find a way to level with them.  Empathy to a person or a situation is the only way to move minds and mountains.  In the case of the bottle bill, the vote-no-ads canvasing news outlets infuriate me – like us all.  Getting the cheap, low hanging vote by dropping aggregated dollars volumes and inaccurate starts sourced by intrinsically corrupted data – how dare they!!!  But, after drinking some of my own sugary Kool-aid, I realize – I’m the fool to expect anything different. The grocers and producers of this liquid-corn-sugar and bottled tap-water are spending millions to keep the current cash-flow of status quo. Instead, for us, currently trying to “change norms” with only conflict – we must have better foresight to appreciate possible friction through showing empathy to move these mountains.  More of that crazy Kool-Aid talk, but in order to enact change quickly, both ecological and societal, we must take accountability through attaining a seat at the table that can influence status quo to fight with us, instead of against.

Vote YES on #2

Question 2asks Massachusetts voters whether to expand the state’s existing 30-year-old bottle deposit law and require deposits for non-alcoholic, non-carbonated beverage containers. The measure The expansion of the Bottle Bill is a sensible evolution of the original law. It would address the proliferation of plastic bottles and discourage litter. Voters should approve it.  #yeson2MA