To the editor:

I would like to respond to Raphael Maliakal's Feb. 7 opinion regarding the bottle bill.

Mr. Maliakal is correct in pointing out the shameful mess we all see along so many of our state's roads and shores. His suggestion, however, of raising the bottle fee, to perhaps 20 cents, will clean up our state, is flat wrong.

I just do not see bottles and cans littering our state. What I do see is cardboard, tires, construction materials, paper plates and cups, plastic shopping bags, all thrown there by us.

I see illegal dumping by unscrupulous contractors, fast food refuse cast aside in the parking lot where it was eaten, boxes and trash at warehouse stores, and barrels and Dumpsters without proper lids. I have seen residents of housing projects throw trash out third-story windows, and I have seen "upscale" Brookline twenty-somethings in BMWs open their car doors and throw their lunch litter on the ground.

We do not need an increase in the bottle bill deposit. What we need to do is teach respect, enforce our litter laws and discipline our neighbors, colleagues, and children. Mr. Maliakal's idea is to use the government's power of legislation to fix a non-existent part of a much larger problem, us.

Barry P. GillNorth Attleboro