‘Cleaning Up California’ With Bottle-Deposit Law

Thank you immensely for printing “Cleaning Up California.” I’ve often wondered if any plans were being drawn up for an initiative such as AB 2020 proposing a deposit on all beer and soft-drink containers as an effort to decrease litter in California.

As a conscious aluminum can collector, I sympathize with the private recyclers. However, I would gladly surrender the $10 to $20 that I earn from collections each month in favor of a cleaner state.

Frequent vacations that I’ve taken in Utah, another state practicing beverage container deposits, have proven to me that the number of cans and bottles left as litter is inversely proportional to the value of that same litter.

I don’t think the distributors’ concerns over decreased sales are valid primarily because the 5-cent per container increase would be unavoidable by customers unless they halt beer and/or soft-drink consumption completely.

Previous attempts to keep our state clean have shown that apathy toward pollution runs fairly deep in the blood of Californians. Passage of AB 2020 would no doubt be a set toward eliminating this apathy.

WILLIAM L. MEYN

Solana Beach