If good intentions came in bottles or cans, they might be labeled House Bill 1839. This legislation proposes that a 5-cent deposit be placed on soda, beer, tea and sports drink containers in Pennsylvania. At first blush, the proposed law would seem to strike a blow for recycling and provide funding for the state's Hazardous Sites Cleanup Fund.

But good intentions are no guarantee of good outcomes, and this legislation has the state Department of Environmental Protection concerned -- and rightly so. After all, this bill (and a companion in the Senate, SB 1035) envisages setting up a rival bureaucratic system to the curbside collections that are the source of revenue to many municipalities.

Most of the 11 states that currently have deposit laws enacted them in the late '70s or '80s before recycling programs became common (Hawaii was the last to do so in 2002). Of Pennsylvania's neighbors, only New York has a deposit law. While it is tempting to think that such a law would cut littering, that presumes that the ordinary feckless litterbug who can't find a trash bin will suddenly hold onto his soda can to make 5 cents.

As critics of the bill such as the Pennsylvania Beverage Association point out, if the bill did succeed in reforming all those litterbugs, the program would end up costing the state money. That's because those who would handle the returned bottles and cans and pay customers the 5 cents per container (no more than 28 ounces) would make 2 cents on the deal -- an amount that, Giant Eagle, for one, says would not cover the considerable costs to set up separate centers for collecting containers at its stores.

This is the unfortunate irony: The math suggests that for this plan to stay in the black, the redemption rate would have to be less than 71 percent. In other words, if the law were to be a great success in promoting recycling, it would be a complete failure in its purpose of funding the Hazardous Sites Cleanup Fund.

The smart and conscientious people who already put out their cans and bottles on recycling day could be expected to take them out of the bins to recoup their deposits later at stores. But not everybody would -- and that would invite scavengers to go through people's bins. For all Pennsylvanians, 5 cents would be an extra charge coming out of people's pockets or extra inconvenience.

While freshman state Rep. Lisa Bennington, D-Morningside, deserves credit for trying creatively with HB 1839 to fund the Hazardous Sites Cleanup Fund, this flawed proposal should be canned if not bottled up.