WV Bottle Bill

Please call your legislators and Governor Manchin today and ask them to support bottle bill legislation:

Governor Manchin:
1-888-438-2731
Governor@WVGov.org

Senators and Delegates:
1-877-565-3447

Write your legislators at:

The Honorable ___________
Member of WV Senate/House of Delegates
Bldg. 1, State Capitol Complex
Charleston, WV 25305

You can e-mail legislators at www.legis.state.wv.us, or use the "Contact Your Legislators" form in the sidebar

26,000 containers from WV Student Sierra Club Coalition Deposit Day 2006 Photo by Vivian Stockman

Earth Day 2007 Litter Pick-Up
WVU Morgantown Campus: Beverage Containers In Clear Bags, Other Trash in Black Bags
Photo by Linda Frame

Trevor Swan and Linda Frame, State Capitol. February 5, 2005

Trevor Swan and Linda Frame,
State Capitol. February 5, 2008

SB 237 sponsors are Senators McCabe (D-Kanawha), Foster (D-Kanawha), White (D-Webster), Wells (D-Kanawha)

HB 3037 sponsors are Delegates Fleischauer (D-Monongalia), Manypenny (D-Taylor), Staggers (D-Fayette), Talbott (D-Webster), Brown (D-Kanawha), Beach (D-Monongalia), Susman (D-Raleigh), Poling, M. (D-Barbour), Hamilton (R-Upshur), Tabb (D-Jefferson), and Hatfield (D-Kanawha).

Magic Island Park
Charleston, West Virginia
November 2003

A West Virginia Bottle Bill It's the Right Thing - It's a Jobs Thing!

West Virginians use over 1 billion containers each year, the majority of which end up in landfills or along our highways.

A Bottle Bill will:

increase recycling rates and reduce landfill tonnage
reduce litter
reduce overall burden placed on taxpayers and municipal waste management systems
save taxpayers money - West Virginia spends $3 million/year on litter clean-up
reduce costs to farmers for damage to crops and livestock caused by litter
Allow West Virginia to join the other 11 states where Bottle Bills enjoy strong public support.
Help West Virginia comply with the West Virginia Recycling Act, which mandated recycling goals of 30% by January 1, 2000 and 50% by January 1, 2010.
CREATE JOBS!

Bottle Bills mean JOBS! A WV Bottle Bill would create hundreds of new jobs in our state.

The 2006 bottle bill does not require retailers or bottlers to handle empty beverage containers. Instead, it provides incentives for existing recyclers, Solid Waste Authority facilities and new businesses to collect them. This means new jobs in EVERY West Virginia county.

For Example:

Redemption centers serving a city the size of Parkersburg would collect about 13,000,000 containers a year, based on a 70% redemption rate, and would receive about $400,000 in handling fees. Based on the experience of other bottle bill states, this would be enough business for 2-3 redemption centers, each employing 2 full-time employees and 6 part-time employees for a total of 4 - 6 full-time and 12 - 18 part-time employees for that community.

Statewide, over 110 redemption centers would be needed to handle West Virginia's containers. This means 220 - 330 full-time jobs and 660 part-time jobs.

Where would this money come from? The Bottle Bill requires a fully refundable 10-cent deposit be collected on each beverage container sold in the state. Once consumers return their containers, they receive their dime back. Money left over when consumers choose not to return their containers would be used to pay the handling fees and to create jobs.

Based on a container redemption rate of 70%, West Virginia would have $34,290,000 in unclaimed deposits each year. Redemption centers would receive $24,003,000 of these unclaimed deposits through handling fees. The remaining $10 million would be used to administer and enforce the program and provide money for years in which the redemption rates increase.

What Can You Do?

We need citizen and community support!

Resolutions of support for this legislation have been passed in many WV towns and counties (see list here). Talk to your city council or county commission and ask its members to adopt a similar resolution to support a statewide bottle bill. For a simple, one-page sample resolution, click here (pdf).
A statewide petition drive has already collected thousands of signatures in support of a West Virginia bottle bill. If you'd like to download a blank petition, click here (pdf)
Contact Farm Bureau members in your community. They are natural allies on this effort and may be willing to attend meetings and help collect petition signatures. Click here for a list of county presidents.
Hand out bumper stickers. (E-mail me if you’d like me to mail you some ~ linda@wvcag.org).
Take pictures of litter in your local community. The visual impact of trash lining familiar streets or park trails brings our message home and makes it hard to deny the need for a Bottle Bill.
Write a letter to the editor supporting the Bottle Bill. Include the website in your letter.
Attend meetings in your areas (4-H, Boy Scouts, Garden Clubs, etc.) and talk about the need for a WV Bottle Bill.
If you are a member of a civic or community group or other organization, ask its members to send us a letter of support for a West Virginia Bottle Bill. We will add your group to our growing statewide coalition.
For more ideas on how you can help, e-mail linda@wvcag.org or call 304-346-5891.

Young Recycler Redeeming
Her Container, February, 2004

Deposit Day - Since 2003, WV-CAG, the WV Sierra Club, the WV Environmental Council and other organizations have sponsored a Deposit Day in February in the Capitol Rotunda. The event brings legislators, state employees, media, and citizens to our booth where we “refund” recyclers 10-cents for each beverage container they bring to us. We typically take in about 1,000 containers an hour!