To the editors:
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With regard to the bottle-deposit ordinance I read about in Mr. Peter Friederici’s article “Environment: No Deposit, No Return” [March 3, 1989], which ordinance Joseph Phelps, a Chicago parks commissioner, has proposed in order to reduce broken glass in the parks, since I can remember (which is about thirty years ago) this ordinance was in effect on and off in New York City. The reason this ordinance was in effect on and off was not because the beverage industry was spending a great deal of money to repeal it, as Mr. Phelps said. To the contrary, it were the people who were annoyed by it, especially the busy mothers who bought beverages for their families to drink at home and were overburdened with the redeeming of the bottles that had always managed to repeal it. They had argued that the bottles with beverages Mom buys for her family are not carried in the streets, just to be smashed in the gutters.
As to the collection of bottles and other items for recycling, Mr. Phelps can rest assured that is quite effective. In fact, in the large co-op complex where I live, we were told by the management that in order to ensure an even flow of bottles, cans, and newspapers on a daily basis, we shouldn’t wait until we saved a lot of them before putting them out for collection.
