Waste

FITCHBURG -- Fitchburg State University students Thursday rallied for a change in state trash-burning policy.

Robert Hedlund, Republican of Weymouth, deserves our hearty thanks for finally getting a vote on the updated bottle bill in the Massachusetts Senate (“Bottle bill gains OK in Mass. Senate,” Metro, July 21). It has been stalled in the Legislature for 14 years despite widespread support.

SOUTHBRIDGE —  State environmentalists, who have aligned with local opponents of the landfill here, took aim Thursday at the state's master plan for reducing solid waste. They say it's two years delayed. 

The widely popular move to update the Massachusetts Bottle Bill (H890 in the House, S1650 in the Senate) has been dealt another blow by the powerful committee in whose hands the measure’s fate resides. The bill, which would update the decades-old recycling program to require deposits on non-carbonated beverages such as juices, coffee beverages and bottled water, has once again been sent out for “further study” by the Joint Committee on Telecom, Utilities and Energy.

BOSTON — The food and beverage groups that lobbied to block an expanded bottle deposit law announced a new pro-recycling initiative on Wednesday, saying they would put $533,000 behind a two-year pilot program.

Small business owners and the Update the Bottle Bill coalition announced that over 350 small businesses statewide have already endorsed the Updated Bottle Bill.