Effective January 1, 2024, Connecticut’s bottle and can redemption will increase from five cents to ten cents. Doubling the redemption amount on eligible bottles and cans is intended to incentivize consumers to redeem more bottles and cans and thereby increase our recycling rates.
History and Milestones
In the 1970’s Connecticut was, with Oregon, Vermont, Michigan, Maine, and Iowa, at the forefront of adopting container deposit bills known as “Bottle Bills” to combat litter.
Looking back, some of us might remember when local milk and soda companies delivered glass containers to homes and picked up the empties to reuse them. (Some of these companies still use glass bottles that can be recycled back to the company.)
In the 1950s and ‘60s, most companies shifted to using cheaper aluminum and plastic and so returning glass containers was no longer an option. These throwaway no deposit beverage containers created litter everywhere – in landfills, roadsides, farms, and oceans. The concern for the amount and detrimental effect of so much waste and the hazards it caused, spurred the development of Bottle Bills.
The current Connecticut bottle bill reflects the same concern about environmental litter that spurred the 1970s bottle bill.
States with deposit programs have the highest can/container recycling rates compared to non-deposit states. And those with a ten cent deposit amount have by far the highest redemption rates of all.
How and Where to Get Deposit Refunds
The ten cent deposit applies to the following bottles and cans:
Carbonated beverages such as beer or other malt beverages, hard seltzer, hard cider and mineral waters, soda water and similar carbonated soft drinks
Noncarbonated beverages such as any water (including flavored water), plant or nutritionally enhanced water, juice, juice drinks, tea, coffee, kombucha, plant infused drink, sports or energy drinks
Bottle and can returns can be made to retailers who are only required to redeem deposits on brands that they sell. However, some stores accept other items as well. In addition, Connecticut has 24 bottle redemption centers that accept a wide variety of bottles and cans. Two local redemption centers are the Orange EZ Bottle Return at 392 Boston Post Road and the Stratford Returnable Container Facility at 1855 Stratford Ave.
Incentives and Processes
Bottle bills alleviate waste contamination which is characteristic of single-stream systems where a lot of sorting and contamination take place thereby increasing costs and reducing the amount of material that can actually be recycled. On the other hand, when consumers bring cans and bottles to collection centers already cleaned and sorted, the recycling process is efficiently managed from the start. This pre-sorting of clean items saves money for recycling operations and means a very high amount of essentially uncontaminated material can be effectively recycled.
Container deposit programs increase the following: the incentive to return recyclables, recovery and recycling rates, awareness of litter, conservation, and waste management issues as well as the conservation of energy and natural resources. They thereby reduce roadside litter and solid waste and the enormous environmental impact of beverage container waste everywhere. Bottle bills have proven to be the most successful and cost-effective system to encourage consumers to recycle. Return your empties and redeem your deposit refunds!
For more information about recycling, follow facebook.com/ORCinCT
Article originally published in the Milford-Orange Times.