▪ Senate votes to increase price on bottle deposits.
Effort expands to sports drinks and juices; 5-cent surcharge on ‘nips’ bottles for first time
HARTFORD — In an effort to improve recycling, the state Senate voted overwhelmingly Wednesday night on the largest expansion of the Connecticut bottle bill in decades by doubling the deposit and widely expanding the items being recycled.
For more than 40 years, Connecticut residents have been returning bottles and getting back the same 5 cents. Now, the deposit would double to 10 cents, starting in January 2024.
After more than one hour of debate, the Senate voted 33-1 with two members absent shortly after 7:30 p.m.
Doubling the deposit, lawmakers said, will provide a greater incentive for purchasers to bring the bottles back to supermarkets or other places of purchase. The two states with 10-cent deposits, Michigan and Oregon, have much higher redemption rates than Connecticut, where only 50% of the bottles and cans are currently redeemed. The other 50% end up in the trash or in the blue recycling bins at the curbside.
“We are seeing the worst redemption rate of any bottle-bill state in the nation,’’ said Sen. Christine Cohen, the co-chairwoman of the legislature’s environment committee. “We certainly have a trash crisis in the state of Connecticut, and it’s all at the cost of our environment.’’
She added, “This bill doesn’t make everyone 100% happy. ... Connecticut has been extremely progressive in developing a bottle bill in 1978, but we’ve really fallen behind.’’
The 10-cent deposit will be widely expanded in January 2023 to a new group of containers, including juices, sports drinks, energy drinks, tea, coffee, hard seltzers and hard ciders, among others.
“This is an important day,’’ said Sen. John Kissel, an Enfield Republican who has served in the legislature for the past 27 years. “I think this is a milestone day in many ways. ... Everybody should be a little happy, moving forward. The environment is going to benefit from this.’’
In addition, for the first time, the state would impose a fee of five cents on miniature bottles that are known as “nips’’ after legislators complained that the tiny bottles generate a large amount of trash in parks and along roadways and trailways.
The “nips’’ proposal would generate an estimated $4.5 million per year for cities and towns, based on the sale of 90 million nips bottles per year in Connecticut. That includes 3.1 million sold in Hartford, 2.4 million in Manchester, 2.2 million in Bristol, and 1.5 million in East Hartford. Hartford is among the highest in the state — selling essentially the same number as Bridgeport, which has a higher population. New Haven is the leader with 3.88 million bottles sold.
The money from the nips, for example, could be used by the towns to hire a recycling coordinator, supporters said. The fee on the nips will be a surcharge, not a deposit.
“There’s no way to put a nip in a machine right now and get your nickel back,’’ said Sen. Craig Miner, a Litchfield Republican who supported the measure.
Acoalition of the package stores, wine and spirits wholesalers, and the manufacturers joined together on the proposal as a group of influential lobbyists helped craft the measure.
“We launched the ‘Don’t Trash Connecticut’ campaign under the premise that if you want to make a difference in the world, start in your own front yard,” said former House Republican leader Lawrence F. Cafero, who serves as executive director of the Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of Connecticut. “That’s exactly what our nickel-per-nip surcharge will do— because every nickel will be given to the municipalities where the nips are sold.’’
Under the bill, municipalities would also be given incentives to create “pay as you throw’’ programs in which consumers would pay only for the trash they generate.
The issue has been tried in other states and in some cities and towns in Connecticut for years, but it came to the forefront recently as a recommendation from a task force formed by Gov. Ned Lamont’s administration. Under the plan, consumers would pay for the garbage that they throw out — in the same way that they pay only for the electricity and water that they use.
House Speaker Matt Ritter of Hartford pledged that the legislature would not force the towns to try the program.
“Let me get this straight,” Ritter said as the measure was being developed. “They tried this in West Hartford, which is a very environmentally conscious community, and [Mayor] Shari Cantor said it was the hardest thing she ever tried to do. So now they want the legislature to force every town to do this?”
Towns in Connecticut have had a wide range of success and failure with their own programs. In Stonington, pay-as-you-throw has become a way of life as residents generate 389 pounds of trash per person per year, compared to about 700 pounds per person in the region. The program started in 1992, and residents pay close attention to their trash in the same way as their electric bill, officials said.
Steve Changaris, the Connecticut chapter director of the National Waste and Recycling Association, said the overall legislation is a bad idea.
“This bill will do nothing to solve the so-called ‘waste crisis,’ as it does nothing to provide disposal options for household garbage, but it certainly will tax consumers and will disproportionately adversely impact those on fixed and limited incomes,’’ Changaris said. “It will also harm local recycling programs.’’
Senate majority leader Bob Duff, a Norwalk Democrat, said, “This is the perennial bill that has been in front of us for at least two decades and probably longer. ... When the original bill was written, nobody every thought that we would be purchasing water. ... I walk my dog all the time, and [nips] are all over the place. It means that, here in the state, we have to do better.’’