Over three decades ago, Massachusetts put a five-cent refundable deposit on soda and beer bottles to reduce litter in our state’s parks, waterways, and streets. The existing Bottle Bill — while proven to be a success with 80 percent of bottles and cans with a deposit getting recycled — is simply not expansive enough.

Question 2 on the November 4 ballot would expand the state’s successful beverage container deposit law to containers not currently included under the law, like nonalcoholic, non-carbonated drinks, and would place a refundable five-cent deposit on bottled water, sports drinks, iced teas, juices, and other on-the-go beverages.

While curbside recycling is useful for beverages used at home, the current deposit law also ensures the very high recycling rates for beverages consumed outside of the home and for communities where recycling is unavailable.

A “yes’ vote on Question 2 would have a measurable impact on Dorchester: Fewer bottles littering Dorchester’s parks and ball fields, fewer bottles along the Neponset River, and our Main Streets business districts. The truth is that in Massachusetts, non-deposit bottles are about four times as likely as deposit bottles to be found as litter and about nine times as likely as deposit bottles to be littered in our waterways.

In addition to serving as an incentive to recycle and a disincentive to litter, the money left over from consumers who do not collect their deposit would be directed to a Clean Environment Fund for cleaning up parks and other state environmental projects. Only a “yes” vote on Question 2 will remove unclaimed deposits from the Commonwealth’s general fund and put them into this fund for the environment.

The groups I work with, like Massachusetts Sierra Club, MASSPIRG, and a collection of Dorchester civic associations, know that the updated Bottle Bill is good for towns and cities statewide and would save Massachusetts municipalities nearly $7 million annually. Boston would save almost $646,000 every year on trash collection and disposal.

The DC-based American Beverage Association, which includes companies like Coca Cola, Dr. Pepper, and Pepsi, are spending millions in out-of-state money to tell us the Bottle Bill doesn’t work. But the Bottle Bill works 3 to 4 times better in capturing bottles than curbside recycling alone, and states with bottle bills have seen a reduction in bottle litter of over 70 percent.

On November 4, hundreds of Dorchester community activists, along with our governor and our state senators, Linda Dorcea Forry and Sonia Chang Diaz, will be urging our neighbors and friends to vote “yes” on Question 2 and help pass an updated Bottle Bill.

Judy Meredith, a Dorchester resident, is a member of Bowdoin Geneva Residents Association, First Parish Dorchester Social Justice Committee and the Ward 15 Democratic Committee.