Skelos gives bottle bill new life
ALBANY — The State Senate’s new Republican majority leader has one of Long Island’s best surf breaks in his district.
And, while 60-year-old Dean Skelos doesn’t surf at Long Beach, wave riders and other environmentalists say the Republican who voted for the first bottle bill is starting to look like the kahuna who can finally expand the deposit law and keep more plastic trash out of the water and off the beach.
It’s no easy feat: Since the state first started tacking a nickel onto carbonated beverage bottles in 1982, the call for a “bigger, better bottle bill” has been an annual event. It’s never gone anywhere, crushed by heavy-duty lobbying.
But in July, Skelos replaced upstate Sen. Joseph Bruno, a powerful opponent of both the original bill and subsequent enhancements, as head of the Senate’s Republican majority. When surfers from Long Island and New York City came to Albany in March to lobby, their focus was Bruno. Next time, they’re coming to see Skelos, said Katie Lawrence, who is chairwoman of the 600-member Surfrider Foundation-Central Long Island.
“I’m confident he will at least be willing to discuss it, and I’m hopeful he’ll help us get this bill passed,” Lawrence said.
Legislation backed by Gov. David A. Paterson passed the Democratic-controlled Assembly in June but died in the Senate, where Skelos now leads the narrow Republican majority. Proponents say expanding bottle deposits to noncarbonated beverages, the sheer numbers of which have grown since 1982, should be an environmental priority.
Under the administration proposal, deposits would remain 5 cents and apply to virtually all beverages sold in New York.
The state Department of Environmental Conservation says since the bottle bill was first adopted, New York’s roadside litter has been reduced by more than 70 percent, and more than 90 billion deposit containers have been redeemed, with recycling of 4.25 million tons of glass, 850,000 tons of plastics, and more than 1 million tons of aluminum.
