Dear Editor:

Something that riles me is the amount of trash that winds up along our roadsides and now that the snow has melted away you see it nearly everywhere.

The other day I got a closer look during a walk along Willow Lane in Wiscasset from Churchill Street to the entrance of the Sortwell Memorial Forest. The roadside here, like so many others, was littered with the usual Styrofoam cups, sandwich containers and empty cigarette boxes.

What really surprised me though were the dozens of plastic mini liquor bottles I came across on both sides of the road. Jack Daniels mostly, but there were other brands as well. “Nips” are what they call them. They typically contain 50ml of liquor, the equivalent of roughly a shot of whiskey. They are sold at agency liquor stores often as collectibles. They were never meant for people to drink while they’re operating a motor vehicle and litter the roadside with the empties.  

For one reason or another, the authors of Maine’s bottle bill chose to exclude nips from a bottle deposit, a mistake that needs correcting by the legislature. The deposit should apply to miniature liquor bottles, both glass and plastic, and the amount should be 15 cents, the same as it is on other bottled liquor.

The intent of Maine’s bottle bill was to reduce litter and create incentives for recycling. It has. Amending it to include a deposit on miniature liquor bottles won’t stop everyone from littering but it may induce others to pick up the empties.

Phil Di Vece

Wiscasset