Milestones: MASSPIRG wins the Bottle Bill

After ten years of grassroots efforts, pro-recycling advocates and citizens successfully established a bottle deposit law in Massachusetts.

Milestones

Explainer

June 1, 2024

‘Where are all the bottles and cans?’

In 1972, on a cross-country biking trip, Hampshire College student Whitney Cranshaw noticed something when she reached Oregon: fewer bottles and cans littering the roadsides.

A year earlier, the state had enacted the nation’s first bottle deposit law, or “bottle bill,” requiring consumers to pay a refundable 5-cent deposit on soda and beer containers. The law, as Whitney saw first-hand, was working to reduce litter.

Whitney returned to Hampshire and persuaded the newly formed Western Massachusetts Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) to support similar legislation. Whether she knew it or not, Whitney had just launched a 10-year battle.

David takes on Goliath in Massachusetts

A few years later, after the Bottle Bill met stiff resistance in the state Legislature, MASSPIRG turned to the initiative process. Volunteers, including Janet Domenitz, then a student at Brandeis University and later MASSPIRG’s executive director, gathered 100,000 signatures to put the Bottle Bill on the 1976 state ballot.

It was a classic David v. Goliath battle. The national beverage industry, container manufacturers and regional supermarkets spent a then-record $2 million against the Bottle Bill. Goliath won – barely. The Bottle Bill was defeated by less than one percent of the vote.

A victory for recycling and citizen action

Advocates kept plugging away. By 1981, Janet, now a full-time campus organizer with MASSPIRG, was given the task of persuading then-state Rep. Joseph Manning of Milton to buck his legislative leadership and change his position in favor of the Bottle Bill. Janet recalled:

“We organized — along with the local folks in Milton who were supportive — a town hall meeting where he was invited to come and listen to residents’ concerns about litter and recycling and why he should be supportive. And we packed the town hall. There were over a hundred people there. And he was basically hearing from his constituents a hundred percent that they supported it.”

Rep. Manning heeded his constituents. So did a majority of other lawmakers, who sent the Bottle Bill on to the desk of Gov. Ed King in 1981.

The governor’s office received so many letters and phone calls from residents that one frustrated telephone operator reportedly threatened to quit. Yet in spite of the unusually vocal public support, Gov. King vetoed the bill.

This time, though, the slingshot of grassroots action worked. In the two weeks following the veto, more than 15,000 citizens made phone calls to their legislators, urging them to override Gov. King’s decision. Many made their calls after being contacted by the MASSPIRG door-to-door canvass, which, under the leadership of Sandy Pooler, had started just the year before. Ten lawmakers flipped their positions, enough to overturn King’s veto and enact the Bottle Bill into law.

The following year, industry opponents spent millions more to put a Bottle Bill repeal on the 1982 ballot. More than 8,000 citizen volunteers distributed more than 2 million leaflets, bumper stickers, yard signs, buttons and t-shirts in support of the Bottle Bill, defeating the repeal with a convincing 59 percent of the vote.

It took 10 years, but the underdog team of pro-recycling advocates and citizens had prevailed.

What goes around comes around

Today, 10 states have bottle deposit laws, promising anywhere from 2 to 15 cent deposits back to residents who return their bottles and cans. The Container Recycling Institute has found that states with bottle deposit laws see beverage container recycling rates of roughly 60 percent — more than double the 24 percent seen in states without them. In states where their impacts have been studied, bottle bills have been followed by total litter reductions of between 34 and 47 percent.

About this series: PIRG, Environment America and The Public Interest Network have achieved much more than we can cover on this page. You can find more milestones of our work on zero waste below. You can also explore an interactive timeline featuring more of our network’s zero waste milestones.

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