Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

LETTER TO THE EDITOR:

Deposit bill a great way to clean up the desert

I think Assemblyman James Ohrenschall’s container deposit bill is an excellent idea. We’ve all seen bottles, cans and other trash littering our highways, particularly in Southern Nevada. For me, it spoils the desert’s natural grandeur.

As to the program’s costs to business, since similar programs have been in effect for more than a quarter of a century in Oregon and California, we’re not exactly reinventing the wheel here. In those states there’s only a minuscule cost to bottlers that, if their stock prices are any indication, are practically “printing money.”

In Oregon, only a fraction of a penny — largely a promotional cost — is borne by the big-box retailers that have machines to count and recycle cans and bottles, and no cost is borne by some smaller retailers that generally don’t process returns. So basically, the program’s cost to business would be minimal.

As to the cost to consumers, because it would be borne by those who litter and others who choose not to recycle, it would be minimal.

In an era of increasingly expensive and scarce natural resources like oil and aluminum, do we really want to continue to befoul our cities and natural environment with littered bottles and cans?

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