The proposed legislation would enable the public to return bottles of noncarbonated beverages, such as water, tea and sports drinks, for the same five-cent refund given for carbonated bottle deposits. The five cents, which manufacturers currently keep when a bottle is not recycled in a deposit machine, would instead be put into an environmental conservation fund. Opponents say the bill is ineffective, detrimental to business and costly.
Alexander “Pete” Grannis, Commissioner of the Department of Environmental Conservation, in his first official visit to Long Island, joined Brookhaven Town Supervisor Brian Foley and other environmental advocates to announce the latest push at Brookhaven Town Hall in a press conference last Wednesday morning, May 23.
Grannis was one of the original sponsors of the Bottle Bill. June 15th marks the 25th anniversary of the state’s returnable container deposit law.
“It’s a real tribute to the people and the legislators of Suffolk County, they are more forward-looking than the State but we are quick to follow,” Grannis said. “Even a great law needs a tune-up.”
The bill is currently stuck in the State Legislature, but Grannis wants it to pass before lawmakers go home June 21 for summer vacation. Gov. Eliot Spitzer has endorsed the bill and indicated he would sign it into law upon passage.
“Now it’s time to strengthen and modernize the bottle bill by including new categories of containers—like fruit juices, bottled water and sports drinks—that barely existed in 1982 when it was passed,” Spitzer said in a statement provided by the D.E.C.
Opponents say the bill will increase costs to consumers without any benefits. “The proposal makes the mandate larger but removes its funding,” said Jonathan Pierce, spokesman for New Yorkers for Real Recycling Reform, a group which represents beverage distributors and store owners. The drinks will cost up to 15 cents more than they do now, he said.
By taking the five-cent deposit out of the hands of the distributors and placing it into an environmental protection fund, the state is betting that people will not recycle the bottles, he added. “That is bad public policy.”
According to Grannis, noncarbonated drinks now make up more than 25 percent of the market share of bottled beverages, while they only constituted a “minute” portion of drink sales in 1982. These bottles make up more than 60 percent of the beverage containers cleaned up around the Hudson River, according to a study of the area, he added.
Grannis estimated that there would be up to 3 billion noncarbonated beverage bottles returned each year with the passage of the bill, and unreturned deposits would net the state over $100 million annually, which he said could be used for land acquisition and preservation, estuary maintenance and other environmentally friendly initiatives.
Foley endorsed the bill at the press conference. “There is strong, local bipartisan support for this legislation,” he said. “This is going to be important for our waste management department, because with the passage of this legislation, we [the town] will save, at minimum, $100,000 a year in cost avoidance.”
Many organizations, including some national groups, support the expanded bottle deposit legislation. Over twenty editorial boards, including Newsday, have all endorsed the bill as well.
*A different version focused on the Hofstra community appeared in the Summer issue of The Chronicle.
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