IN HIS July 29 op-ed piece Paul McMorrow argues that expanding deposits to water, juice, and sports drink bottles would increase prices and is inefficient compared to recycling bins.
Since machines already exist for automatically collecting empties, only people who don’t bother to return theirs need pay more. That’s the point of a deposit - to provide incentive for recycling. McMorrow mentions the expense of driving bottles to the grocery store. Who makes special trips to the store for that?
How effective are recycling bins? At a park near me, a recycling bin is right beside some trash barrels. Nevertheless, many bottles end up in the trash barrels, and lots of water and sports drink bottles are discarded on the fields.
McMorrow is correct that the lure of a nickel isn’t what it used to be. Today it’s worth only a fraction of what it was in 1983, when the present bottle bill went into effect. The deposit should be raised to 10 cents.
Increasing the incentive to recycle bottles and cans has no downside, except for litterers. It costs those who return their empties nothing, while rewarding charities, the poor, and the civic-minded who collect discards.
Bruce Novak
Needham 
