Provision on bottles upsets some groups

By Mark Binker
Staff Writer

RALEIGH — How did five lines related to biodegradable plastic bottles make it into the Senate budget draft — freaking out bottlers, outraging Republicans, surprising the only company that makes them, and showing exactly how random the process of putting together a $21.4 billion spending bill can be?
Two words: Marc Basnight.

The quirky, environmentally-minded Senate President Pro Tempore has enough clout to finagle any item he wants into his chamber's version of the budget. And what he has wanted lately are ways for North Carolina to reduce its consumption of foreign oil and to pollute less.

Since most plastic bottles are made from oil and many end up in landfills, Basnight jumped at the chance to boost anyone making biodegradable containers made from plants.

But flexing legislative muscle, even to save the planet, can have unintended consequences.

"You don't want a monopoly with one company, one place holding a particular bottle and that's the only way to get the bottle," Basnight said.

Right. Meet Dave Burke , who helps run Primo Water in Winston-Salem, the only company in the United States that sells water in biodegradable bottles right now.

"We help consumers kick their foreign oil addictions," Burke said. Primo's bottles will break down in 90 days, if they make it to a commercial composting facility. If you just chuck it in your backyard, it'll sit there like a regular bottle.

So is Burke some big-time donor whose campaign contributions are paying off? Although he has given to some political causes, a campaign records check showed Burke has not given to Basnight.

Burke said he didn't even know the Senate had an interest in his product until he was called for this story. He is, however, delighted with the attention.

Lobbyists for folks who sell water retail and those who bottle water huddled with members of Basnight's staff Thursday afternoon to argue the budget provision ought to be capped — in the Sopranos sense of the word.

"This is a great commodity right now," said Andy Ellen, a lobbyist for the N.C. Retail Merchants holding up an bottle of water. His afternoon beverage container, Ellen explained, could be turned into T-shirts, carpets or more bottles if recycled. With biodegradable bottles, he said, "the only thing you can do with it is stick it in a compost pile or a landfill."

Besides, Ellen argued, oil-based bottles were getting lighter and using less oil all the time.

Basnight acknowledged there were problems with his idea Thursday and said he would see about changing the provision in the final version of the budget, although he wasn't clear on exactly how.

It's worth noting that Primo bottles are made from corn, a sensitive subject as global food prices rise. Burke said the company could become the biggest water bottler in the United States and still use only .001 percent of the country's corn supply. And the company plans to use grasses in the future.

Oil, corn or grass, Sen. Phil Berger wants the state to tap the tap.

" I don't know why we're spending tax dollars for bottled water," said the Rockingham County Republican. And when he first read the budget, the provision was an enigma.

There was never a bill filed, a committee hearing on the topic or any sort of public discussion about it until 337 pages of budget material were unveiled by Democrats on Monday afternoon.

Berger wrote a budget amendment to stick the bottle talk on a shelf and require state agencies to use tap water.

But it was one of at least a dozen changes Republicans wanted to make Wednesday that were blocked when Basnight and his lieutenants cut off debate on the budget, leaving Berger and his colleagues looking like they were in need of something stronger than a glass of water.

"We see these things pop up in the budget that...clearly have been put in there at the behest of one, two, three members or a special interest of some sort. Nobody knows where it came from and there's been no discussion or debate .... It's a poor way for us to be doing business."