by Cassie Kerner, Independent Writer
I suppose I look at St. Joe from a somewhat unique perspective. Like many of my childhood friends, I was born and raised in the city, but eagerly left to explore greener pastures after high school. I spent four years attending college in Des Moines, IA and then moved to Washington, DC, where I’ve lived for the past five years. I embraced the opportunity to experience life in other parts of the country, but unlike a lot of my peers who moved away, I plan to return to St. Joe.
My reasons for wanting to return are many and varied. I want to live closer to my family, the cost of living is exponentially more affordable, traffic isn’t a problem, people are friendlier…I could go on and on, but for now it will suffice to say that, for me, St. Joe will ultimately win out over life in the “big city.”
However, my time spent learning and living in other cities has exposed me to a lot of projects and programs that St. Joe could benefit from, too. Despite all of the great, progressive changes that have taken place in St. Joe in recent years (and there are many to be proud of!), there is still a lot of room for improvement. I think this is particularly true when it comes to the environment.
While I’m still far from fanatical about the cause, I became a lot more aware of environmental issues during college. I kind of fell into a political science class about Environmental Policy while working on my degree, and ended up getting a minor in the subject. I also spent a couple of years interning for the Iowa Recycling Association while I was going to school. Between those combined experiences, I learned quite a bit about the environmental challenges our cities are currently facing, and about the possible solutions.
I’d like to make the case for implementing one of my favorite environmental programs in St. Joe, a container deposit law, or “bottle bill.”
I had never heard of a bottle bill before I moved to Iowa. I was baffled by the extra 60 cents I was charged for the first 12-pack of Diet Coke I bought during college. But after living with the program for four years, I’m a staunch supporter.
Here’s how it works: When a store buys beverages from a distributor, the store pays a deposit to the distributor for each can or bottle purchased. (In Iowa the deposit is five cents per container, hence the extra 60 cents for a 12-pack of your beverage of choice.) The consumer pays the deposit to the seller when they buy the beverage. The consumer gets their deposit back when they return their empty beverage containers to the store or a redemption center. The seller recoups the deposit from the distributor, plus a small handling fee in many cases, which helps defray the cost of handling the containers.
Bottle bills work. They reduce litter and waste, make recycling more accessible to greater numbers of people, and provide a financial incentive for recycling.
The first bottle bill was passed in Oregon in 1971 and since then no state has ever repealed one. Eleven states currently have bottle bills and they are being proposed in seven more states, including Kansas, Illinois and Arkansas. I think it would be great if we added Missouri, or even St. Joe, to that list.
I don’t have a detailed plan for making this happen, but I think a container deposit program would be a real asset to St. Joe. If enough other people feel the same way, maybe we can start a campaign and get the ball rolling…I’d love to hear what you think.