A coalition of Massachusetts environmental groups says it is launching a summer boycott of Worcester-based Polar Beverages next week, to protest the company’s opposition to expanded bottle recycling legislation.
Environmental groups have been pushing for years to broaden the so-called “bottle bill” in Massachusetts. That’s the decades old law that requires consumers to pay a 5-cent deposit on certain beverage containers. They want it to include plastic water bottles, nips, and other containers, as well as to increase the deposit amount from five cents a container to 10 cents.
Kirstie Pecci of the waste-reduction advocacy group Just Zero says including a broader range of containers in the bottle bill would also shift the cost of recycling to beverage manufacturers and away from cities and towns, which currently pay for their recycling…