No redeeming value
in this bottle billRecycling should be as easy and painless as possible. I don't want to cart bottles to a recycling center when the payoff is only a couple of bucks. That's not enough to compensate for my time, the wear on my car and the gasoline.
Where I lived in Japan, recyclable materials are collected twice a month on Fridays. All I needed to do was have separate trash bins in the house and remember which day to put out what stuff. Trash cans are also provided in public areas for cans and bottles. It became natural to recycle.
Since Japan is an island nation with many psychological ties and geographic similarities to Hawaii, why not study what works there and adapt it?
It's adding insult upon injury to be "taxed" 1.5 cents on a bottled drink and then have to haul the container someplace at my own expense to reclaim the 5-cent deposit. I am happy to pay the "bottle tax" only if we are to have a more practical way to help care for the aina, i.e. curbside recycling. Otherwise, I may have to stop buying those 20-ounce Diet Cokes.
CHRISTINA CHUN
cchun@starbulletin.com