Thanks to the ‘Litterati,’ the New Massachusetts Recycling Bill has Major Stakes

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I’m sure most readers, reading the title above, might be expecting an essay on Newburyport’s contributions to culture in general, and with literature in particular. After all, we just celebrated the 20^th Anniversary of our city’s annual literary festival, which this past April broke all attendance records. Sorry! Literati is defined as well-educated people who are interested in literature and comes from the latin lataritura, for those of you seeking to recreate your miserable days in the classroom trying to learn this stuff. But Litterati spelled with two t’s means something else here: the addiction we have to throwing stuff out our car windows as we’re driving around town or, worse, in the countryside. Litterati as in Litterer.

When possible, I try to bicycle to my study each day, a 3 ½ mile trip. Generally speaking, I keep my eyes especially peeled on a 2-mile stretch from Newbury’s upper green south to Pine Island Road, trying to stay alert for pick-ups and cars that are trying to kill me. Once a week, though, I just study the side of the road and usually stop when I see something that needs to be picked up. Here’s a photo of my customary finds, one week’s worth of roadside junk. Take a good look.

The inventory: 1 plastic cup cover;1 McDonald’s cup, also plastic; 1 plastic pint bottle; 5 water bottles (plastic); 15 plastic nip bottles and, surprise, surprise, only a single aluminum can.

Is it a surprise that the number 1 item is a nip of alcohol, easily drained in one gulp and easily tossed? A sociological study of this particular item would be interesting, and I’m betting the alcohol industry has done dozens on the buying habits for these. Are they merely meant as hors d’oeuvres for cocktail hour once the driver gets home to really go at it? Are they a way of salvaging a bad day at the office, or amping up for a couple of hours with the kids? It seems a male preoccupation: my unofficial count of nip purchasers at the New Hampshire Liquor store in Seabrook indicates that a vast majority of buyers are men.

Also generally male, I’m told by an employee at one of our local Newburyport liquor stores, are the five to ten customers who arrive at her shop right at the opening bell each morning to buy a nip. She calls them the Breakfast Club. A great way to start the day with a 100-proof belt of Captain Morgan’s Spiced Rum (a favorite choice, according to what I pick up roadside), and only .99 cents a pop.

I’m not interested in launching a jeremiad in this column about the drinking habits of adult Americans, nor their unconscionable habit of littering the landscape. My intent is to argue for a solution.

What strikes you about my inventory? Clearly, it’s the absence of soda and beer cans. In this respect, the Massachusetts Returnable Bottle bill from the last century has been a huge success. But it has been around for forty years now, and with one huge loophole: plastic bottles, mostly drinking water, but also, in my survey, plastic nips as well. I’m willing to bet that putting a .5 or .10 cent returnable fee on each of these plastic containers would dry up huge amounts of wayside trash. And right now is the time to do it.

Last year the Mass. Senate passed legislation to update our recycling law to include the plastic containers I’ve been talking about. The House has not, and the clock is ticking. House Bill H3464 is currently before the Joint Committee on Telecommunications, Utilities and Energy. The deadline for the bill to be reported out of committee is 9/16, so not much time is left. What to do?

Step One: Encourage our local rep, Dawne Shand, to press the flesh, co-sponsor the bill and do everything possible to get it passed. Her email is Dawne.Shand@mahouse.gov.

Step Two: Press the committee chairman, Mark Cusack, to expedite the bill’s passage: Mark.Cusack@mahouse.gov. 

Now’s the moment. Let’s get on it.

To learn more about recycling in MA, visit this link. And thanks to Molly Ettenborough, Newburyport’s Recycling and Energy Manager, for her input.

James Charles Roy
Newburyport resident

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