Bottles And Cans

It's one of those things that make sense but we do not do: Have a nickel deposit on every bottle and can of beer, soda and all the other liquid beverages we drink. Maryland does not have it. Some states do. Every state should. I first looked into why Maryland is a no-deposit/no-return state 30 years ago, having been raised where this was done all the time. There have been attempts over the years to get a bottle-deposit law passed in Maryland, but it was always shot down. Tom Horton, my former columnist colleague at The Sun, once cited polls showing that as many as seven out of 10 Marylanders supported the idea.

"Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more," I say, quoting Shakespeare's Henry V, the breach being not the hole in the wall at Harfleur, but the gap between who Marylanders are as recyclers and who we could be. How's that for reducing a fine literary allusion into a mundane practicality? But I mean well. I'm talking about the gap between being pretty good recyclers of bottles and cans and being nearly excellent recyclers of same. Into that breach comes the bottle-deposit bill, now before the General Assembly.

A scarcity of rain since mid-April has water in the Gunpowder Falls at two-thirds average flow. A cool and serene kayak run from Monkton to Phoenix on Sunday was often slow and rocky, and low water exposed lots of trash. We filled a bag with bottles and cans, but missed lots more. Tubers and other visitors, it seems, prefer light beer to heartier brews, coconut rum and vitamin water to soft drinks. A real cleanup day could net a truckload of refuse, shoes and tires.

It's one of those things that make sense but we do not do: Have a nickel deposit on every bottle and can of beer, soda and all the other liquid beverages we drink. Maryland does not have it. Some states do. Every state should. I first looked into why Maryland is a no-deposit/no-return state 30 years ago, having been raised where this was done all the time. There have been attempts over the years to get a bottle-deposit law passed in Maryland, but it was always shot down. Tom Horton, my former columnist colleague at The Sun, once cited polls showing that as many as seven out of 10 Marylanders supported the idea.

Looking for the city's best beer deals? We have a list for that. (On a desktop, laptop or tablet, we recommend our interactive map. ) If we missed your favorite bar, tell us at beer@bthesite.com . Thirsty? Of course you are. It's summertime - peak season for cheap, cold beer. And Baltimore bars have some of the cheapest beers around. You just have to know where to look. In that spirit, we scoured the city, looking for the best deals on bottles and cans, draft beers and happy hours.

"Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more," I say, quoting Shakespeare's Henry V, the breach being not the hole in the wall at Harfleur, but the gap between who Marylanders are as recyclers and who we could be. How's that for reducing a fine literary allusion into a mundane practicality? But I mean well. I'm talking about the gap between being pretty good recyclers of bottles and cans and being nearly excellent recyclers of same. Into that breach comes the bottle-deposit bill, now before the General Assembly.

IT WAS Friday, Oct. 11, and all the federal, state and county offices were open. Even the banks were open, so it was sunshine and service with a smile all the way around.Except Baltimore city. Baltimore was closed down tight in honor of Columbus Day, which this year fell on Saturday. So what did everyone do except Baltimore? Everyone closed down tight on Monday.But a lot of people in Baltimore did not know that Friday was a holiday. Out went the trash. Out went all the stuff for recycling.

Garbage day will change for 50,000 city households next month when the pickup day for recyclables moves earlier in the week.Public Works Director George G. Balog said that picking up recyclables on the first trash collection day of each week will reduce staff and equipment needs by 30 percent.The change, which will begin March 6 in 70 neighborhoods, is part of the reorganization of the Bureau of Solid Waste.Distribution of new recycling schedules to all 233,000 households served by city is under way.Changing the pickup schedule will ensure the weekly collection of recyclables even during holidays, Mr. Balog said.

This Is Justice?Reading Lyle Denniston's Dec. 29 story, "No immunity for president, but trial delay," I wished I had paid more attention in civics classes.Up until this point, I had no idea there were footnotes to the Supreme Court dictum, "Justice delayed is justice denied."Frederic HollandMillville, Del.Blue Plastic WasteI have been piling recyclables in my basement and hauling them to recycling centers for as long as there were places to take them.Combined with composting most bio-degradable waste, and mulching grass and leaves, this means that we put out one small can of garbage every other week.

In South Seattle, where I used to live, recycling was a breeze. Newspaper, steel cans, tinned cans, aluminum cans, bottles of every color, magazines, mixed paper, junk mail and cardboard? I tossed them together in a huge cart on wheels that got emptied, curbside, once a month.The only minor inconvenience was that the cart would fill up prematurely, obliging us to slink down the alley in the wee hours looking for neighbors with emptier bins. We eventually figured out that the city was happy to supply us with a second cart, and all was recycling bliss.

In a bid to boost recycling and reduce litter, a trio of lawmakers announced plans Monday to push for legislation that would levy a refundable nickel deposit on every beverage container sold in Maryland. But the announcement drew prompt opposition from beverage distributors and merchants, who argued it would hurt their sales and employment, and undercut rather than help recycling. Dels. Maggie McIntosh and John A. Olszewski Jr., Democrats representing Baltimore City and Baltimore County, respectively, said they would soon introduce a bill titled "Recycle for Real," which if passed would make Maryland just the 11th state to require deposits on all bottled and canned drinks sold.

Looking for the city's best beer deals? We have a list for that. (On a desktop, laptop or tablet, we recommend our interactive map. ) If we missed your favorite bar, tell us at beer@bthesite.com . Thirsty? Of course you are. It's summertime - peak season for cheap, cold beer. And Baltimore bars have some of the cheapest beers around. You just have to know where to look. In that spirit, we scoured the city, looking for the best deals on bottles and cans, draft beers and happy hours.

A young Canadian who has spent a lot of time in Europe and who now lives in Baltimore asks: "How come your restaurants and bars don't recycle?" This Winnipeger had just been to a pizza shop for lunch and had emptied a bottle of soda down his pipe. He looked around for a blue recycling receptacle and found none. This happens everywhere he goes. He's a little shocked by it, having grown accustomed to seeing recycling barrels side-by-side with trash cans all over Canada and Europe, even in the smallest towns.

Well, that worked out well, didn't it? I'm talking about those precious yellow recycling bins, which are probably selling on eBay for triple or quadruple their price even as we speak. Those now worth-their-weight-in-gold containers that thousands lined up to buy at this weekend's "Bin Kick-Off" events at several city schools, only to be turned away empty-handed when the city ran out of them. The yellow bins are for next year's switch to single-stream recycling. Come Jan. 8, you can dump all your fine recyclables - paper, plastic, bottles, cans - in a single container, which will be picked up twice a month.

Baltimore is planning a major overhaul of its recycling program that aims to boost participation by making it easier for residents to dispose of their cans, paper and plastic, city officials said yesterday. Starting in January, the city will begin collecting all recyclable material - bottles, cans, paper and cardboard - in a single container, eliminating the complicated schedule in which residents place bottles and cans at the curb on one day, and paper and cardboard on another. Baltimore's new system - known as single-stream recycling - comes as local governments across the country are seeking to become more green and as residents increasingly complain that the current system is too confusing.

A scarcity of rain since mid-April has water in the Gunpowder Falls at two-thirds average flow. A cool and serene kayak run from Monkton to Phoenix on Sunday was often slow and rocky, and low water exposed lots of trash. We filled a bag with bottles and cans, but missed lots more. Tubers and other visitors, it seems, prefer light beer to heartier brews, coconut rum and vitamin water to soft drinks. A real cleanup day could net a truckload of refuse, shoes and tires.

Curbside recycling recently arrived in my Baltimore County neighborhood and I guess things are going smoothly, if you don't count all the people hauling stuff out to the curb and wailing: "What pickup is this -- bottles and cans, right? What? It's newspapers? Dammit, I told her it was newspapers . . ."Yeah, it seems some of us are having a slight problem memorizing the new collection schedule.And since the new collection schedule seems designed for a second-grader to understand, this offers stark new evidence that the human brain continues to grow smaller and is now approximately the size of a pistachio.

IT'S MARCH, that trashy time of year. The snow banks have melted, and the wind is kicking up all the litter concealed for so much of this winter. But the weeds and brush haven't sprouted enough yet, or greened up enough to hide it all again. All this roadside rubbish drives me nuts. I can't figure out what thought process prompts people to heave an empty six-pack, or a bag of burger wrappers and french-fry cartons out the car window. But there it is. Tons of it. Look around you while you drive.

Leave it up to our illustrious leaders, who apparently have nothing better to do, to spend time considering outlawing plastic bags ("Plastic might get the sack," June 8). Plastic bags don't litter; people do. And if we follow the so-called logic behind the drive to outlaw this useful commodity, I suppose we should also outlaw cans, glass and plastic bottles, paper and so on. But until we change the culture, which I doubt will happen in my lifetime or that of my children, litter will not go away.

When 13-year-old Lara DeJacma was vacationing in Florida recently, she found a great postcard to send to a friend back in Annapolis. Well, it wasn't exactly a postcard. It was a flip-flop -- a cheap rubber thong sandal with an address label and space for a short message as well as 62 cents worth of postage. As the vacation season draws to a close and stock is taken of all the far-flung salutations that arrived by mail this summer, it's clear that there are many more ways to deliver a wish-you-were-here message than on a flat postcard.