Burlington, Vermont - July 25, 2011
Recycling advocates gathered Monday to put messages in bottles to send to the Vermont Statehouse.
The Vermont Public Interest Research Group hosted the press conference in Burlington to raise support for expanding Vermont's bottle bill. They want to include non-carbonated beverage containers like water bottles and sports drink bottles. Under the current law, advocates say 85 percent of the bottles and cans are recycled.
"Updating the law to include these containers could potentially keep 82 million bottles and cans out of our landfills and off our roadsides every year. That's enough bottles to stretch from Vermont to Honolulu and back," said Charity Carbine-March of VPIRG.
"We do have a bill in the Senate right now. It accomplishes a great deal, but the most important thing is to update the bill to include these non-carbonated bottles that you see in front of you," said Sen. Ginny Lyons, D-Chittenden County.
Lyons says she plans to propose the update to the bottle bill in January.
Gina Bullard - WCAX News
