ALBANY — Several key legislators want to expand the 1982 bottle law through proposals that include doubling the 5-cent deposit and adding bottles of sports drinks, iced teas, juices and wines and liquor to the list of containers requiring deposits.
Other measures would require some beverages to be sold in refillable containers and help law enforcement crack down on fraudulent schemes that are costing the system millions of dollars a year.
“The bottle bill has done a great job of keeping certain materials out of landfills, but it hasn’t been changed in a long time,” Assembly Environmental Conservation Committee chairwoman Deborah Glick (D-Manhattan) said at a joint legislative hearing on Monday. “We’re here to listen [and] to inform how we go forward in a final fashion.”
Several bills are pending and they, along with new bills, could be considered as early as January or, more likely, in state budget negotiations. Gov. Kathy Hochul will present her budget proposal to the State Legislature in January, opening negotiations with legislative leaders. The budget is due by April 1.
WHAT TO KNOW
- Legislators want to expand New York State’s 1982 bottle law that aims to reduce roadside litter.
- They have introduced bills that would raise the deposit to 10 cents; add wine, liquor, distilled spirit coolers, cider and milk products to the redeemable container list; ban single-use containers made of plastic for water, and provide grants to help build more redemption centers and other technology.
- The bills could be considered as early as January or, more likely, in state budget negotiations that could take several months to finish.
“We are still in the early stages of formulating our budget,” Hochul said Monday. “It’s something we’ll certainly look at.”
The current law requires deposits on bottles for carbonated soft drinks, sparkling water, carbonated energy drinks, carbonated juices, carbonated tea, soda water, beer and other…
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