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Federal Landscape
Not
surprisingly, federal legislators will most likely focus on
environmental initiatives this year as policy-makers attempt to embrace
initiatives that will lessen environmental impacts. This could mean an
emphasis on beverage packaging despite industry efforts to promote
recycling and lightweight its packaging.
• Bottle Recycling Climate Protection Act:
Last November, Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., used the popular environmental
drumbeat to introduce this Act. If passed, it would apply a 5-cent
deposit on all beverage containers aside from milk, wine and liquor and
a 3-cent handling fee paid to retailers by bottlers. The Act further
calls for unclaimed deposits to be granted to states to “combat global
warming.” The bill has been referred to the Environment and Hazardous
Materials Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. The
beverage industry will be watching the bill closely and stands firm
behind the fact that comprehensive recycling, which addresses all
packaging, is a better approach that would have a more lasting
environmental impact than piecemeal methods such as deposit
legislation.
• School Nutrition Standards:
Left unresolved in 2007 was legislation concerning nutrition standards
for beverages and foods sold in schools - an amendment to the Farm Bill
sponsored by Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, and others, which failed to be
considered. The beverage industry supported the measure, which would
have codified the industry’s National School Beverage Guidelines, with
some minor modifications. ABA will be visiting with members of Congress
this year to advocate that the amendment be turned into a free-standing
bill.
• Dollar Coin:
The beverage industry
avoided spending more than $20 million dollars and countless hours
unnecessarily retrofitting vending machines starting January 1, thanks
to the industry’s work to pass legislation exempting our industry from
the federal “dispensing” requirement of the Presidential $1 Coin Act.
Earlier last year, an interim regulatory rule was issued that would
have required vending machines on federal property to both accept
dollar coins and dispense them as change – even if the vend price would
never warrant distributing a dollar’s worth of change. However, due to
legislation passed in December, the regulation does not apply to
vending machines on federal property that do not receive denominations
higher than $1 in their bill validators.
State Landscape
The
beverage industry anticipates increased action from states as
legislators throughout the country search for unique ways to tackle
health issues, score environmental points with constituents and raise
funds to boost state coffers. The following are some challenges the
beverage industry anticipates facing:
• Deposit legislation:
As state legislators attempt to address environmental issues, they may
look to expand or create deposit legislation to improve recycling
rates, despite the fact that they have proven to have little impact and
ignore more than 90 percent of materials in the waste stream. The
industry is nevertheless dealing with attempts to create new deposit
laws in several states around the country. In 2008, the industry will
continue actively participating in coalitions with grocers, retailers
and others to stop these proposals. In conjunction with national
initiatives such as the National Recycling Partnership, the industry
will spearhead efforts to present credible alternatives to deposit
proposals in state legislatures. These alternatives will seek to
increase recycling rates and minimize our environmental footprint
through ways other than deposit mandates.
• Taxes:
Proposals to impose beverage taxes on soft drinks and bottled water
remain a threat. Last summer’s intense media coverage of issues
regarding bottled water and the environment raise the possibility that
the industry will see many more onerous tax proposals on bottled water
in states during the 2008 legislative sessions. In addition, several
governors and legislators plan to attempt to solve their state’s health
care access problems through major state initiatives that need funding.
The industry remains vigilant in fighting these proposals.
While
these are issues the beverage industry expects to contend with in 2008,
as other developments occur the American Beverage Association will keep
you updated in this column throughout the year.