AlO-Lmcastw Farmhif, Saturday, January 26,1985
Bottle Bill reintroduced in
HARRISBURG - Sen. Edward
W. Helfrick, R-27, reintroduced
legislation this week which would
require a nickel deposit to be paid
on beverage containers sold in
Pennsylvania. This deposit would
be refunded to consumers when the
bottles and cans were returned to a
retail store or a redemption center,
Helfrick explained.
“I introduced a similar Bottle
Bill last session,” said Helfrick.
“Unfortunately, that piece of
legislation never made it out of the
Senate Environmental Resources
and Energy Committee. This time
I am optimistic that this legislation
will not get bottled up by a com
mittee stalemate. We’ve made a
number of important changes to
the bill which should help it move
and get the votes it needs for
passage.”
Helfrick pointed out that one
major change in the bill was
transferring administrative
responsibility from the state’s
Department of Environmental
Resources to the Department of
Agriculture.
“In working with Secretary
Penrose Hallowell and his staff, we
felt the best place for ad
ministering this kind of legislation
was with the Department of
Agriculture. They already have
responsibilities for inspecting
retail food markets, and they were
willing to get involved in issuing
the necessary permits for
redemption centers where con
sumers can return empty
beverage containers and get their
refund,” Helfrick explained.
The senator emphasized farmers
in Pennsylvania suffer millions of
dollars in damage each year due to
carelessly discarded beverage
containers. “They can lacerate the
stomachs of livestock grazing in
the fields where these cans and
bottles are thrown,” said Helfrick.
“They can puncture farm
equipment tires as fields are
prepared for planting and har
vesting crops, and can con
-11 . *
NOW IS THE TIME
To Make Sore
Ponds Are Safe
Over the last couple of weeks
I’ve noticed a lot of people, both
young and old, ice skating on farm
ponds. It’s good exercise and an
excellent sport. But, be sure you
are prepared in case of an ac
cident. Owners should be certain
that rescue equipment is handy
and not in the barn or garage
several blocks away. Wooden
ladders, boards or other items can
be shoved out to the person in the
water if needed; it should be large
enough to distribute the weight of
the person making the rescue. A
rope is also a good item to pull
people out with.
Skating is a very enjoyable
winter sport. Don’t be the victim of
laminate entire wagonloads of
livestock feed as the harvesting
machines pick up and shred the
roadside litter, mixing the
fragments of glass and tin with
tons of grain and silage.
“When surveyed, about ninety
percent of the farmers in Penn
sylvania say they favor a retur
nable container law,” said
Helfrick. “And, there is a growing
sentiment among the general
public that a deposit law, like the
ones in New York and Oregon,
would go a long way in cleaning up
our state and reducing the
pressure on our landfills which are
fast running out of room to bury
the tons of garbage we generate
each day.” A recent report by the
Department of Environmental
Resources stated that by 1992,
Pennsylvania’s landfills will be
completely full, added the senator.
While retail stores will charge a
nickel deposit for beer and soft
drink bottles and cans less than a
gallon in size, they will not be
charging the deposit on bottles and
cans of noncarbonated water,
soups, milk, fruit juices and
medicines. The beverage con
tainers holding the beer and soft
drinks can be made out of glass,
metal, plastic or any combination
of these materials. Paper con
tainers are exempt.
Retail stores and redemption
centers will collect the returned
beverage containers and will then
be able to return the bottles and
cans to a local distributor to
receive a five-cent deposit plus a
two-cent handling charge, or sell
the collected cans and glass to a
recycling center. Beverage
distributors can return the con
tainers to the beverage
manufacturer for a nickel refund
and a two-cent handling fee, or
they have the option to sell to a
recycler. Manufacturers that
reuse refillable bottles help to
conserve energy, reduce air
pollution, and save natural
resources, noted Helfrick.
By Jay Irwin
Lancaster County Agriculture Agent
Phone 717-394-6851
an accident that could have been
prevented.
The importance of turning out
the dairy herd each day from
stanchions or comfort stalls should
not be overlooked. As we expect
more production per cow, the
stresses are greater, and if not
given exercise, more breeding
problems will result. Dairymen
with free-stalls have the op
portunity of observing heat periods
all the time. However, cows that
are confined to stalls present a
problem with heat detection. There
are very few days that the weather
is so bad that the milking herd
should not be turned out for a few
minutes. If the dairymen is alert
«
To Exercise
Dairy Cows
Pa. Senate
“Oregon was the first state to
pass a Bottle Bill back in 1972,”
said Helfrick. “Their En
vironmental Council reports that
roughly 1,400 billion BTUs, enough
energy to heat 12,000 Oregon
homes, are saved each year due to
their returnable container law.
Vermont, which passed their bottle
legislation in 1973, estimates a
savings of 708 BTUs of energy each
year due to bottle and can
recycling.”
In the area of air pollution,
Helfrick noted an Environmental
Protection Agency study which
stated that one refillable bottle
used ten times creates less than
half the air pollution emissions and
less than one-third the industrial
wastes as ten throwaway con
tainers.
One of the major arguments
against a bottle law, said Helfrick,
is loss of jobs. Experience in other
states, he noted, show actual in
creases in total jobs as a result of
deposit legislation. “Oregon’s
experience shows that
warehousing and truck driving
positions increased by 715, while
production jobs in the packaging
industry declined by 350. This
same sort of increase was
predicted in Massachusetts where
the bottle law went into effect in
January 1983. Their En
vironmental Affairs office ex
pected a net gain of 1,800 skilled
and unskilled jobs.’’
Admitting that this is a con
troversial bill, Helfrick said he is
resolved to see this kind of
legislation passed this session.
“We’ve been dragging our heels on
this issue for too long. It’s time the
public outcry for a cleaner, better
Pennsylvania is heard above the
well-financed roar of the bottle and
can industry lobbyists who have
managed to squelch all the
previous efforts.”
Cosponsors of Helfrick’s bill,
Senate Bill 191, include Sen. Noah
Wenger, Sen. Guy Kratzer, and
Sen. Anthony Andrezeski.
and observing, cows that are in
heat can be observed and bred.
Exercise may help the herds with
breeding problems.
To Review Forage
Crop Fertilization
The correct use of fertilizer is
extremely important in time of
tight margins. Many agronomists
feel that too many farmers do not
use enough fertilizer on their grass
and hay crops. In general terms we
can expect about $3 in return for
every dollar spent for fertilizer on
the average farm crop. On many
forage crops acres this return can
be greater when properly fer
tilized. Just because the land is
covered with grass or a grass
legume mixture, we should not
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° I O O
TO KNOW GOD
January 27,1985
Background Scripture
John 5; 19-24; 8:12-59.
Devotional Reading:
John 8:31-35.
Once again, we find that,
although many people heard Jesus
gladly and became his disciples,
many others preferred to haggle
with him over questions of
theology. They accuse him of
bearing witness to himself, of
making blasphemous claims, of
denigrating their spiritual status
as true sons of Abraham, and of
consorting with the Devil.
Jesus tries to help them to un
derstand that he is not directing
attention to himself, but to the God
whom he represents: “I came not
of my own accord, but he who sent
me” (8:42). And later he says, “...I
do not seek my own glory” (8:50).
“I honor my father,” he proclaims.
THROUGH, NOT AT
Those who contended with Jesus
were having what one com
mentator calls “the optical
problem.” They were- looking at
Jesus, when they should have been
looking through Jesus. They were
stuck on the question of who Jesus
was and were failing to focus on
the One who sent Jesus in the first
place.
It is like a pi'*""e """How in your
Farm Calendar , ; 4i/
Saturday, January 26
York County 4-H Beef Banquet, 7
p.m., at Seven Valleys Farm
and Home.
Monday, January 28
Pa. State Council of Farm
Organizations Annual Meeting,
Hershey Convention Center,
opens at 10:30 a.m. Dinner and
speaker at 7 p.m.
Tuesday, January 29
State Fruit and Vegetable Con
ference, Hershey Convention
Center. Continues through
Thursday.
Interstate Milk Producers #3
meets at noon at the Chestnut
Level Presbyterian Church.
Cumberland County Extension
Annual Meeting, South Mid
dletown Township Fireball,
Boiling Springs, 6:30 p.m.
DHIA Records, Genetic Im
provement, 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
at the Lancaster Farm and
Home Center.
Tri-State Horticultural Meeting at
the Hershey Convention Center.
York County Sheep Producers
Meeting at Bair Station.
Wednesday, Jammy 30
York County Com Clinic, Bair
Station
WORRY-OP OIRLS f
house: the purpose of the widow
is not served very well if you spend
all your time looking at the win
dow, but fail to see through it the
object or scene on the other side. A
window’s purpose is not to divert
attention to itself, but to serve as
the medium by which we can see
something on the other side.
So it is with Jesus Christ, he
alw *es us to see God in
him. it you «u. me,” he savs,
“you would know my h ctl.
(8:19). That’s really the heart ot
the gospel; if we get to know Jesus
we will also be close to the Father.
People may spend their time
disputing as to how Jesus can be
the Son of God, how he could say,
“before Abraham was, I am”
(8:58) and countless other points of
theological and doctrinal con
tention, but you do not have to have
the answers to those questions
before you can experience the
reality of God in Christ.
SET FREE
Some of those who heard Jesus
bristled when he promised to set
them “free” with his truth. “We
are descendents of Abraham, and
have never been in bondage to
anyone. How is it that you say,
‘You will be made free’?” (8:33).
The worst part is that they don’t
even realize that they are not
“free.” Their relationship to
Abraham has made them, not free,
but slaves to a deadly legalism that
kept them from recognizing the
validity of this man from God. If
they had been truly “free,” they
would have recognized that the
was from God.
None of us is ever truly “free”
when we are so encumbered by our
religious ideas that we fail to let
Jesus show us the God whom he
came to earth to reveal.
LanChester Pork Day, Farm
Home Center, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Lancaster Conservation District
Board Meeting, Farm and
Home Center, 7:30 p.m. , ij4
Beef Producers Meeting, Ship
pensburg Jr. High School,
Shippensburg, 7:30 p.m.
Farm Builders Conference,
Montgomery County. Continues
tomorrow.
York Com Clime, 8:30 a.m. to 3
p.m. at the 4-H Center.
Thursday, January 31
Farm and Home Foundation
Annual Meeting at the Farm
and Home Center at 6:30 p.m.
Pa. Dairy Promotion Program
Advisory Board, Room 309, Ag
Building, Harrisburg, 10:30
a.m.
York County Beef Producers
Meeting, BairSation.
Cumberland County Com Clinic,
Embers Restaurant, Carlisle, 9
a.m.
Manor Young Farmers Corn
Management Meeting at 7:30 p.
m. at the Penn Manor Ag
classroom.
Saturday, February 2
York County Sheep Annual
Banquet
Ephrata Area Young Fanners
Banquet, 6:45 p.m., Mount Airy
Fire Hall.
Pre-Teen Retreat Program for
parents and 4-H leaders, 9:30
a.m. to 3 p.m., Bradford County
Extension.
Sunday, February 3
Del. Valley Milk Goat Association
panel discussion on normal and
problem birthing of goat kids; 7
p.m. in the Boyertown
Municipal Building.
Monday, February 4
York County Swine Producers
Seminar, 4-H Center, Bair
Station, 7 p.m.
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