Travis County Commissioners Court
Tuesday, December 14, 2010,
Item 2
Number 2 is consider and take appropriate action on request for Travis County to support a resolution supporting the Texas bottle bill, a recycling refund system for beverage containers.
anybody here to receive this resolution?
>> I just have a question.
>> anybody here to receive resolution number 2?
okay.
please come forward.
hold your question, mr. Reeferseed.
should I read the resolution?
>> if you wish.
>> or unless you plan to describe everything that's in it.
>> I’m -- my campaign is introducing this legislatively.
>> should I read it or would you like to describe it?
>> it's a bill that would recover plastic, metal, glass containers, beverage containers, reduce pollution in our roadways, waterways and push more recycling, secure jobs, clean jobs in Texas in the recycling sector, and keep these valuable resources out of our landfills, incinerators and like facilities.
>> now, those who were around when mr. Reeferseed and I were young remember that when you used to buy soda, you would make a deposit on the bottle.
>> that's exactly what --
>> and when you carried the bottle back, you would get your deposit back.
>> yes, sir.
it would be a deposit refund system where you would put extra money aside whenever you first purchased the bottles, and the incentive would be to return for recycling to redeem that -- that deposit back.
and any money left over from folks that did not redeem their deposits would go into a governmental coffer for environmental public education and programs at the state level.
>> okay.
now, as a kid, it dawned on me if I would go out and collect empty bottles and take them and get the deposit, that would be a little business.
>> that's right.
>> and that's exactly what I did.
we all did it.
>> we used to call it a bounty.
a bottle bounty.
we would go and collect them and return them to the stores, and, of course, you didn't see any bottles laying around.
they was scarce.
>> they had value.
>> they had added value.
>> you could see it as a commodity.
>> part of the recycling.
>> not disposable anymore and you could make money off it.
>> mr. Reeferseed.
>> I think it was answered, but that's great that it will be at the stores where you buy it, you can take them back and get the nickel or whatever it is.
>> get a refund.
>> it's been highly successful in other states such as michigan and hawaii, but yeah, there's -- you know, some retailers that don't want to have to have that responsibility, but it's not going to be all on the retailers.
it's going to be a collaborative project where the manufacturers will be essentially responsible.
doing some kind of take-back action on these products, on these disposables that are now valuable.
>> and it will develop a secondary market.
my understanding is in Texas there isn't much of a secondary bottle at this point except for crushed glass as decorative.
>> especially for glass, there's really not an end market right now.
exactly what you are saying, people can use it for yard beautification and projects on roads to keep down the dust like they do at the Texas disposal systems landfill.
but it would bring those valuables back into the market.
you know, whenever there's a bill that would highlight this, people are going to be much more innovative and they are going to start finding ways to make money off of those valuable products.
>> this is a commodity.
>> yes, it is.
>> it has a carbon footprint and it is highly reusable.
>> absolutely.
you get it.
>> mr. Eckstein.
>> deece eckstein, I was just here in case the court has any questions about this or any other piece of legislation.
>> so you have bill sponsors?
>> we have not yet.
we are working at the county level right now before the legislative session starts mid-january.
we have about I’d say close to 20 counties so far statewide that have supported this particular resolution, and we've had several cities as well that have supported this at the city level.
and we are moving toward getting bipartisan sponsorship and authors.
that's the only way that we're going to move this with the pendulum swing that we've seen this past midterm.
it is an anonymous partisan issue.
this is about bringing clean jobs to Texas.
this is about putting people back to work.
bringing local revenues back to our cities and counties and making sure that there is -- that we have the resources for environmental protection, environmental public education and that we have the programs in place so we'll can do the right thing.
>> this particular resolution, is this also -- well, after this particular action is taken by the courts, you take the particular resolution and then, of course, you find a sponsor for the particular bill, but using the particular action that the court is going to take today.
is that correct?
>> yes, sir.
the more counties and city governments that we can get behind these types of resolutions, the more we can demonstrate to state lawmakers that local governments can no longer handle the financial burden when it comes to these types of products, toxic products, that should not be in landfills, that are recoveriable, reusable.
we need to boost local government revenues, not drain them because we are managing resources improperly.
so on a statewide level, we see that this is going to be a big driver in Texas when it comes to producing this local revenues.
>> and the amount of money per return on the refund, what would that be?
>> we're thinking 5 to 10 cents.
>> 5 to 10 cents.
>> 5 -- 5 cents would probably break us even on the program statewide, but if it was 10 cents, we would be --
>> that particular 10 cents will be added on to the cost of the person that's actually selling the product, they will end up putting 10 cents on the product that they are selling.
and, of course, that particular is refundable for those persons that want to return the particular commodity that they purchase.
is that correct?
>> yes, sir.
>> okie-doke.
I just want to make sure everyone understands what we're doing and the process taking place.
>> great explanation.
thank you, yes, sir.
>> all in favor?
we did get a motion.
>> we didn't have a move.
>> move approval.
>> second.
>> all in favor?
that passes by unanimous vote.
>> thank you.
>> thank you.
>> thank you so much for bringing it.
>> your name, by the way?
>> stacy giddry, Texas campaign for the environment.
I’ll hang out if you want to talk about 3 a and b.
>> because Texas campaign for the environment is on all of it.
t.v.s, computers, bottles.
>> we may as well give you all three, I guess.
The Closed Caption log for this Commissioners Court agenda item is provided by Travis County Internet Services. Since this file is derived from the Closed Captions created during live cablecasts, there are occasional spelling and grammatical errors. This Closed Caption log is not an official record the Commissioners Court Meeting and cannot be relied on for official purposes. For official records please contact the County Clerk at (512) 854-4722.
Last Modified:
Tuesday, December 14, 2010 2:33 PM
