Updating Vermont’s Bottle Bill recycling program to include water bottles, sports drinks and other non-carbonated beverage containers would have a number of benefits, including: 1) Recycling an additional 96.7 million cans and bottles in Vermont each year, 2) Reducing greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to taking more than 1,200 cars off the road annually, 3) Creating …
VPIRG is mourning the loss of a true environmental champion – Joan Mulhern. Many Vermonters became familiar with Joan during her years as an advocate for VPIRG during the late 1980s and early 1990s. In fact, she was hired by VPIRG in 1985 to run our first summer canvass.
The Bottle Bill is Vermont’s most successful recycling program, achieving more than double the recycling rate of any other program in the state. Over the past 40 years, the number of containers that have been recycled through the Bottle Bill they would fill the Empire State Building more than 3 times over. VPIRG will be …
VPIRG Launches Bigger Better Bottle Bill Activist Toolkit Read More »
Sunday’s VT Environmental Summit, co-hosted with Toxics Action Center, was a real highlight of my time working with VPIRG so far. Over 75 people joined us at Vermont Technical College to spend a day meeting new people, learning more about the issues we all care about and how we can make the biggest impact working …
Redeeming cans and bottles really adds up — one nickel at a time. That’s why Scott Britt, a VPIRG summer intern and South Burlington native, is happy to get his hands a bit sticky. Scott is collecting thousands of redeemable beverage containers to help raise money for Safe Passage, a non-profit group based in Guatemala …
Bottle Drive Helps Families Living Off Recycling Read More »
The end of the legislative session is always lively. While things are changing by the minute, here’s a snapshot of where things stand with the public interest bills on the eve of the session’s close.
Statement of VPIRG Executive Director Paul Burns on Senate’s 22-7 Vote to Kill Expanded Bottle Bill Friday, April 20, 2012 — Just as people around Vermont and across the country are marking the 42nd anniversary of Earth Day, Vermont state senators have voted to kill a proposal to expand Vermont’s most successful recycling law — …
The Senate Committee on Natural Resources and Energy passed an amendment to expand the Bottle Bill as part of the broader solid waste and mandatory recycling bill (H. 485) on Friday morning. Offered by Senator Joe Benning (R- Caledonia), the amendment adds beverages such as water bottles, juices, and sports drinks to the bottle redemption …
Senate Committee gives Thumbs Up to a Bigger, Better Bottle Bill Read More »
Forty years ago this week, on April 7, 1972, Vermont legislators passed the Bottle Bill – innovative legislation to add a redeemable deposit on soda and beer bottles and cans. Vermont was only the second state in the nation, after Oregon, to enact a bottle redemption program. The idea was originally conceived as a way …
Last week marked “crossover,” where most bills need to be passed out of committee to remain alive for this legislative session. VPIRG members made phone calls and sent hundreds of emails to their Senators urging the Senate Natural Resource & Energy committee to pass the expanded Bottle Bill out of committee by the Friday, March 16 crossover deadline.
