THE 1982 BETTER BOTTLE BILL

Jean Rice: The attempt by this Mayor [Michael Bloomberg] to abandon the portion of the Better Bottle Bill that required that every retailer redeem at minimum, 240 units that comes out to twelve dollars. Minimum requirement! And then if you had a big load, like a convention or something happening, you just gave whatever supermarket you sought to redeem at two days’ notice, and then the amount that they take is unlimited. The law! Picture the Homeless didn't make the law. The ecological engineering community/canners didn't make the law.

The City Council of New York City passed the Better Bottle Bill. However, it had a state component. Much like the Fourteenth Amendment has in the City Charter, a City provision, and the State Constitution has the same Fourteenth Amendment assurance—due process, equal protection of the law. So, the Better Bottle Bill was two tiered also. I don't know why our former Mayor didn't know that you cannot repeal a State law, by City ordinance. State law supersedes City.

ABARedemption Center, Midtown Manhattan,just blocksfromHoly ApostlesSoup Kitchen. 2004

Giuliani and Bloomberg never gave the ecological engineering community space, like Dinkins did. So, We Can went out of business. So now, the ecological engineering community had to depend on the retailers to redeem their recyclable containers. In the flux, independent operators like A.B. whatever that was, they popped up. But it was sporadic, it wasn't institutionalized. So, they went out of business.