Salem Mayor Wants Nips Covered In Bottle Bill

SALEM, MA -- Salem Mayor Kim Driscoll wants nip bottles to be covered by the Massachusetts bottle bill. Driscoll submitted a resolution to city council which would allow the city to push for changes to the bill by the Massachusetts legislature. The bottle bill puts a five-cent deposit on soda and beer bottles and cans which can be redeemed when the empty is returned to a retailer.

"As you are no doubt aware, one of the most common forms of litter in Salem and throughout the Commonwealth is nip bottles," Driscoll wrote in a letter accompanying the resolution she sent to City Council. "While some communities are studying banning these types of containers altogether, I believe a more effective approach to this form of litter would be to simply extend the existing bottle redemption law to include nips."

Nip bottles are the small, single-serving liquor bottles that typically hold 50 milliliters of hard liquor and other spirits. If approved by City Council, the resolution would amount to a request for the state legislature to adopt the nip bottle deposit into state law in 2019.

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Patch file photo.

Dave Copeland can be reached at dave.copeland@patch.com or by calling 617-433-7851. Follow him on Twitter (@CopeWrites) and Facebook (/copewrites).