5-cent bottle return program expanded
Before Connecticut begins phasing in its new, expanded bottledeposit return program on Jan. 1, lawmakers made minor revisions to the decades-old “Bottle Bill” law during an abbreviated one-day session on Monday.
Since 1980, Connecticut’s Bottle Bill has allowed returns of certain kinds of used bottles and cans in exchange for a 5-cent redemption as part of the state’s litter reduction efforts. Beginning next year, the program will expand to allow redemptions for a host of new products, including teas, hard seltzers and ciders, energy drinks and coffee.
While lawmakers approved those changes in 2021, lingering supply chain issues have resulted in many retailers being unable to secure orders of new products that are stamped with the proper “return for deposit” or other markers to signify the bottles and cans are eligible for a nickel redemption, according to state Rep. Joe Gresko, D-Stratford.
For that reason, Gresko, co-chair of the Environment Committee, said that lawmakers chose to give a one-time exemption to allow retailers to sell older stocks of bottles and cans they have on hand at the end of the year once the new rules take effect on Jan. 1. Those changes were tucked into the end of the 28
pages of legislation that Connecticut lawmakers took up during Monday’s special session in a bill signed into law by Gov. Ned Lamont Tuesday.
Without the fix, Gresko said, retailers would have been forced to return unsold products without the proper stamps or dump them out.
“I thought, with the issues of supply chains all over the place, the last thing our consumers need is empty shelves,” Gresko said.
While the minor fix attracted little attention in the lead-up to the session focused on gas prices and home-heating assistance, Gresko said that it’s likely that the revision will end up having some impact on
the amount of money returned to the state through unclaimed deposits.
Nickels for returning a bottle or can are usually baked into the product’s original price, but that will not be the case for the juice, tea and seltzer bottles grandfathered into the program come Jan. 1.
The result will be that distributors will have to pay for a small number of redemptions from previously unclaimed deposits into the program. The majority of unclaimed deposits are currently transferred to Connecticut’s general fund. (Under the changes to the law passed in 2021, that percentage will decrease to about 45% in the
coming years).
More than $43 million in unclaimed deposits were transferred to the state in fiscal year 2021, according to the Office of Legislative Research.
Gresko said retailers have estimated that it will likely take a month or two before the older, unstamped bottles and cans stop circulating in return centers.
How much the switch ends up costing in unfunded returns depends on how many people attempt to return products purchased in December and January — though the rate of returns has typically been under 50%.
The other co-chair on the Environment Committee, state Sen. Christine Cohen, D-Guilford, said the switch could still result in additional revenue for the state as consumers pay the 5-cent deposit on a wider range of products, so long as the rate of returns stays about the same.
A fiscal analysis of the bill that state lawmakers took up on Monday did not predict any fiscal impact to the state or municipalities as a result of the change to the Bottle Bill.
The Bottle Bill will change again come Jan. 1, 2024, when the nickel redemption is increased to 10 cents. That switch will likely result in a more notable drop in revenues at first, as more people are enticed to return used bottles and cans for the return of a dime.