Brianne Nadeau, a member of the Council of the District of Columbia in Washington, D.C., proposed legislation to tackle plastic pollution in a way that puts money in locals' pockets, WJLA reported.
It involves a "reverse vending machine," a device sometimes seen at the entrance of supermarkets. The concept is simple: Insert an eligible object and receive money in return.
WJLA "went out on a boat" and spoke to a river keeper and a Ward 8 Woods cleanup volunteer about plastic debris on the Anacostia River. During the voyage, the outlet spotted bottles floating down the river and strewn across its banks.
According to riverkeeper Trey Sherard, recent heavy rains were responsible for some of the pollution, as they tend to corral plastic bottle litter into the storm drains that feed the river.
Cleanup volunteers viewed the debris as both an unfortunate consequence of carelessness with plastic waste and as an opportunity for DC residents to earn cash while helping the planet.
Vondre Walston works with Ward 8 Woods, and he had a compelling datapoint for implementing reverse vending machines, noting that his team collected "700,000 pounds of plastic bottles."
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It wasn't clear how many bottles they retrieved, but his estimate of what they'd be worth in a reverse vending machine put it into perspective — even if a dime doesn't sound like a lot of money, he speculated that at ten cents a bottle, the haul would have been worth roughly $1 million.
"Think about that, and think about how many people are hungry. How many people need to pay rent, how many people need to go pay for food," Walston observed.
"Numbers don't lie; it's a lot of money left on the table," he added.
According to WJLA, those who oppose the measure claim it would raise the cost of bottled beverages, but Walston said even if that occurred, it was a small price to pay to preserve the Anacostia.
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Giving me money back 💰 "It's crazy, because if the water splashes up, you jump, you're wondering if the water touches your skin. It's a beautiful river to know it's contaminated with so much, it's like God gave us this beautiful river and we can't even enjoy it," he countered.
WJLA indicated that a hearing on Nadeau's reverse vending machine measure was slated for Oct. 1, where residents and industry representatives would "testify for and against the bill."
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