The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Bottle, can deposit hike considered
HARTFORD >> Raising the refund amount for containers recycled at redemption centers to 10 cents is expected to bring $12 million in revenue to the state, according to Gov. Dannel Malloy’s budget proposal.
Further, it would have the added benefit of likely increasing the redemption rate and keep more glass and plastic out of the waste stream, said Dennis Schain, spokesman for the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.
Under the current bottle bill, consumers in Connecticut can return soda, water and beer bottles and cans to redemption centers for a 5-cent return on each container. Distributors give unclaimed deposits to the state. The governor’s proposal aims to increase that deposit for each container to 10 cents.
“Since its start in 1980, there has been little change in the deposit amount,” said Chris McClure, a spokesman for the state Office of Policy and Management. Michigan, which has a 10-cent deposit, “reports the highest recycling rate of any state and we would hope to match their results,” McClure said
The Michigan Department of Treasury reported in 2014 that the state had an average redemption rate of more than 96 percent.
McClure said the provision
would not go into effect until July 1, 2018, and the expected $12 million in revenue would be for fiscal 2019.
Based on data provided by DEEP, redemption rates have varied greatly since 2009, with the fourth quarter of 2013 clocking a redemption rate as high as 76.1 percent, but the second quarter of 2016 coming in at 42.3 percent.
If the provision were passed, Connecticut would join Michigan as the only other state that offers 10 cents per bottle or can deposited at a redemption center. Oregon will be going to a deposit of 10 cents per bottle or can in April, according to the Oregon Liquor Control Commission.
Other states with bottle-redemption bills include California, Delaware, Hawaii, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, New York and Vermont. Most have a 5-cent return value, though California and Vermont offer 15 cents for liquor bottles.
Nyiesha Evans, a nurse’s aide in Hamden, said she comes to the SARAH Inc. redemption center on Foxon Road in East Haven about twice a month. She said she collects cans and bottles from her neighbors, coworkers and her family to bring back because she believes it’s good for the environment. An increase to 10 cents would be great, she said, adding that more people might visit redemption centers themselves if the return was 10 cents. But how many trips she makes to the redemption center would still depend on how many containers she collected, she said.
“I believe in it,” Evans said. “Every dollar counts.”
When containers are brought to redemption centers in Connecticut, machines crush them and sell them back to the distributor, which does the recycling of the glass and plastic, said Pat Bourne, executive director of SARAH Inc., a company with a redemption center in East Haven.
Bourne said the return of bottles and cans can be cyclical in nature, in terms of redemption rates, and there are usually higher rates in the summertime when the weather is better, travel to centers is easier, and people are generally buying more drinks. She said redemption centers provide an important service to those who need the money to buy groceries, and help to protect the environment at the same time.
“To redeem bottles and cans is really a win-win situation,” she said.
But, Bourne said, without increases in handling fees for small redemption centers, it will be difficult for them to stay in business. Last year, a petition was sent to the governor’s office calling for an increase in the 1.5-cent handling fee per bottle or can to help offset the costs of processing them.
McClure said the governor’s office is committed to working with redemption center operators to find a “workable solution” to that issue.
Bourne said if the recycling rate at redemption centers goes up with the increase to 10 cents, and the handling fee does not, redemption centers will have a hard time staying in business.
“We are a small business providing an important service to the community,” Bourne said. “The people who are doing this want and need these nickels . ... The people who are redeeming are doing it because they need the money.”