[Raleigh] News & Observer Editorial EndorsesEnactment of North Carolina Bottle Bill

Trails of trash:
Too many North Carolina roadsides look like landfills. It's time to require a minimum refundable deposit on bottles and cans

[excerpt]
Nothing about the genetic makeup of North Carolinians explains the volume of trash we unload along public roads. Some of the same people who cheerfully spend their tax dollars dressing up highway vistas with wildflowers turn right around and ruin the mood with their garbage.

As The N&O's Matthew Eisley reported Sunday [Litterbugs trash N.C. from mountains to sea], the state has battled this boorish behavior for years. The Department of Transportation has set up a hotline for reporting litterbugs and taken thousands of scofflaws to court where they've been slapped with fines and community service. Still, over the last decade, the harvest of litter has doubled.

That didn't happen in Iowa, Oregon and several other states where laws require a minimum refundable deposit on bottles and cans. As a consequence, legislators in Tennessee, Arkansas, West Virginia and Illinois are considering so-called bottle bills, too. North Carolina lawmakers should do the same.
[...more at link]