Bid to Add Coolers to Bottle Law Fails

A key Assembly committee on Monday narrowly rejected a bill to add wine-cooler containers to the landmark “bottle bill” enacted last year to help reduce California’s highway litter problem.

The legislation would have extended a one-cent redemption fee to wine-cooler bottles and cans as well as beer and soft-drink containers.

The measure failed in the Natural Resources Committee on a 6-6 vote amid opposition from the wine industry. But its author, Assemblyman Byron Sher (D-Palo Alto), who chairs the committee, said he would seek to have the measure reconsidered.

The bottle bill was designed to encourage recycling of beer and soft-drink containers by offering consumers a one-penny pay-back for returning them to neighborhood centers.

Wine coolers, which represent the fastest-growing segment of the alcoholic beverage industry, were exempted from the original legislation in a political trade-off that would be nullified by the Sher bill.

“The question is if the wine industry wants to be part of the (litter) problem or part of the solution,” Sher said.

‘Too Big a Price’

“The wine industry ought to be ashamed of itself for not wanting to be part of this program. Apparently the industry feels a penny per container is too big a price to pay for a clean environment.”

Holding similar bottles and cans aloft, he added that the similarity between wine-cooler and beer and soda containers would cause “administrative headaches” for recyclers and the state Department of Conservation, which is in charge with implementing the law. Without the Sher bill, recyclers will have to cull through all bottles that are returned by consumers and reject wine-cooler bottles, he said.

Californians Against Waste, an environmental group that vigorously supported the original bottle bill and Sher’s proposal, said there were more than 170 million bottled wine coolers sold in California last year, representing about 8% of the total number of glass containers now covered by the state’s recycling program.

Representatives of the Wine Institute opposed the bill, arguing that a recent study prepared by a private consultant for them showed that wine-cooler bottles and cans accounted for only 0.16% of the street and highway litter in California, Oregon and Washington.

Increase in Costs

They also said that the inclusion of wine coolers in the law would lead to a “significant increase” in production costs that would be passed on to consumers “to reduce a negligible amount of litter.”

Paul Lunardi, Wine Institute lobbyist and a former state legislator, said, “We find no convincing facts to change things now.”

The signing of the bottle bill into law by Gov. George Deukmejian ended a 20-year battle between environmentalists and the beverage industry over how to reduce the litter caused by discarded bottles and cans along the state’s highways and beaches.

The new law requires beer and soft drink distributors to pay a penny into a state redemption fund for each bottle and can they sell, starting Sept. 1. The cost is expected to be passed on to beverage consumers.

Starting Oct. 1, consumers will receive a penny per container when they return the glass, plastic or aluminum containers to neighborhood recycling centers.

Hard to Tell Apart

“Wine-cooler containers are virtually indistinguishable from beer and soda containers,” Sher said. “They are consumed and littered in the same places as other single-serving beverage containers.

“It’s only fair that wine-cooler manufacturers assume some of the responsibility. My bill will hold the wine industry accountable for its share of litter and waste in California.”

Wine-cooler sales have increased nationally from 150,000 cases in 1982 to more than 40 million cases in 1986, according to the Northern California assemblyman.