New York redemption centers hopeful for expansion of State Bottle Bill

Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - Discussions over the expansion of New York State's Bottle Bill continue in Albany, as state lawmakers mull over the idea of including liquor, wine, and fruit juice containers, among others, in the list of items subject to deposit.

In addition, this expansion would see the deposit rate for consumers increasing from 5 to 10 cents per-container.

While can and bottle redemption centers across the state are hoping the expansion of the Bottle Bill happens sooner rather than later, there seems to be a mixed public opinion, according to data from the latest Siena Poll released Wednesday .

According to the collected data, 46% of New Yorkers say they oppose the increase in deposits from 5 to 10 cents, while 43% of New Yorkers say yes. Siena pollster Steve Greenberg says not surprisingly, there is a partisan divide on this debate.

"51% of Democrats say yes, 58% of Republicans say no on this question. Independents look a little bit more like Republicans, with 51% of Independents saying no," said Greenberg during an appearance with Joe Beamer on WBEN. "If we look at it regionally, New York City mildly supports, the Downstate suburbs are vehemently opposed, and Upstate is closely divided, but leaning negative, 46%-42%, almost looks like the state as a whole."

Greenberg also notes one of the more interesting findings he saw with the results from people voting among different household incomes.

"Those households where the household income is under $50,000 a year, they support doubling the bottle bill from 5 to 10 cents, 51%-to-35%. But those households where the income is $100,000 or more, they oppose it 49%-to-38%," he explained.

Another interesting disparity Greenberg noticed with the voting on the increase in deposits for beverage containers is the results amongst different age groups.

"Younger voters - those under 35 - they support it, 51%-to-35%. But older voters, my crowd - 55 and older - oppose it, 54%-to-35%," he said.

However, beverage redemption centers across the state tell a different story from their customers that walk through the doors. Darren Palaszewski says people want to see deposit rates increasing for their beverage containers, no matter what type of container they're trying to bring in.

"More people want to see more products. They don't understand why an iced tea does not have a deposit on it, but a Pepsi does," said Palaszewski in an interview with WBEN. "If it's a plastic bottle, who cares if it's Gatorade or Pepsi?"

Jade Eddy also owns her own redemption center in Queensbury, New York, less than hour North of the state capital in Albany. She's also a representative for the Empire State Redemption Association, and has been present before the State Legislature to address this issue.

Eddy says if state lawmakers were to listen to their voters more and not those working for the major corporations, they would better understand that the voters want this expansion to pass.

"Consumers are sick of having to do more work to return their containers," said Eddy with WBEN. "There are so many things that are not covered under the current bill, because times have changed and the bill has not changed with it. So they are stuck at home, staring at labels, trying to figure out what they're allowed to return and what's not allowed to be returned. A nickel doesn't go as far as it did in the '80s, so they're on board with an increased 10-cent deposit."

In addition, a large amount of people say they want redemption centers to get a raise on the handling fees so they can stay open to continue providing services to them, according to Eddy.

"With redemption centers closing the way that we are, consumers are losing access to easy bottle return options. It's going to have a very massive ripple effect in communities, and I don't think legislators are thinking that through," she said.

Eddy is at the forefront of the push to make this expansion of the Bottle Bill a priority before the legislative session ends in the first week of June. If it doesn't, Eddy feels the state will be on track to be the very first state to let this system fail.

"I firmly believe the time is now for this bill to pass, and that legislators really need to think things through on the long run. If they don't act this year, there are going to be devastating repercussions for that," she stated.

Eddy says many redemption centers across the state are planning to close if this Bottle Bill expansion is not acted upon this session. Without the increased handling fee that's a part of this expansion, many businesses are not going to make it much longer.

"It's very frustrating, because we don't even have enough money to keep our lights on. There are so many business owners working alone, because they can no longer afford staff," Eddy described. "I've lost my house over this. I recently talked to other business owners who also lost their houses, and they lost their businesses. We are in a horrible situation, and legislators are being tricked by these big beverage companies with deep pockets. And what do we have to fight against that besides just grassroots efforts and talking to legislators using our own voices, and having our customers do the same thing?"

The expansion of the bill to allow for wine, liquor, distilled spirit coolers, cider, wine products, noncarbonated soft drinks, noncarbonated fruit and vegetable juices containing less than 100% fruit or vegetable juice, coffee and tea beverages, carbonated and non-carbonated water, and carbonated fruit beverages to be deposited would be integral for redemption centers, especially with the way peoples' tastes have shifted since it was enacted in 1983.

"I have to turn away product every single day. People are trying to do the right thing, they are trying to recycle these items, and the state is literally not allowing them to," Eddy said. "I can tell you, their first instinct, when I say there's not a deposit on those beverage containers, is to turn around and throw those containers in the trash can. Without that monetary incentive, people don't want to go the extra mile to have to take those containers to a recycling facility that is separate from what they're already doing."

Palaszewski also feels the more products that are allowed to be deposited will help business, and the raise from 5 to 10 cents per-deposit would increase the amount of bottles coming in.

"Right now, I believe we only bring in about 40%. In other states that have the 10-cent deposit, they're around a 90% return rate, so that would help," Palaszewski explained.

In addition, the increase in the handling fee for the redemption centers will be a nice boost to allow business to recover and thrive.

"The problem we're having is because it's a fixed costs, I can't adjust to the increase in minimum wage, I can't adjust to the increase in my utilities going up, all my insurance is going up, because the nickel that we give out is fixed by the state," Palaszewski noted. "If this was a traditional business, if this was a pizzeria, I would just raise my prices. I can't do that."

Eddy believes if this expansion of the Bottle Bill does not get passed this legislative session in Albany, the end result is also going to affect the stores that offer can and bottle returns.

"They are going to be overwhelmed with the billions of containers that we process," Eddy said. "If we close down, those containers have to go somewhere. So it's either going to end up at a store that's overwhelmed and cannot take the containers because they don't have the space, or it's going to end up in a landfill that's overwhelmed. And the state is already discussing closing down all of New York State's landfills within the next 25 years. Or, the worst case scenario, people just give up entirely and it becomes litter."

One of the arguments from some state lawmakers against the Bottle Bill expansion in New York is the additional cost for people out of their own pocket, but it would cost businesses more in labor. Eddy says that's simply just not true.

"It's statistically historically proven that those things don't happen," she said. "There have been worldwide studies on these redemption systems being either put in place or updated, and the studies have proven that the price of your beverage does not increase due to those systems. Even looking at just the states on the Northeast, between states that have a deposit system and state that don't, the cost of the beverages themselves, there is no difference. You will, yes, see an increase on your deposit, but you also have the opportunity to get 100% of that money back. That's kind of the whole point of the system is to motivate people to recycle those containers."

Another argument against the expansion of the state Bottle Bill deals with space considerations, as well as sanitary issues and things of that nature.

"What are they going to do when redemption centers are closing and the billions of containers go their way? It's not going to get better for stores if we go out. You need us to stay in place to help alleviate that problem," Eddy responded. "I know that I have, at least, 5-10 stores within a mile of my redemption center, and the containers would end up going in their direction, and they're already overwhelmed. I do have a store that is throwing away the containers after they pay their customers for them, because they don't have the storage space. This bottle bill actually loosens the language to allow them the ability to contract with places like mine so that they don't have to take back the containers that they're taking back. It alleviates that pressure for them. So I don't understand why they're fighting against it, because they're honestly going to create a bigger problem for themselves than they're already in."

What's a slap in the face for business owners like Eddy is other states nearby are proving the systems work, and updates to previous Bottle Bills work.

"I have a colleague who has a redemption center in New York State, but also has a redemption center in Connecticut. Connecticut actually updated their Bottle Bill in recent years, they expanded the containers that they cover, and they also increased the deposit to 10 cents. He has said that his business has significantly increased, because people are able to easily return those containers, but also they're more incentivized. He's getting a lot of new people who said that they've never returned their containers before, but the 10 cents did, indeed, incentivize them," Eddy explained. "He said that he's gone from doing around 200,000 containers a week to over 1 million containers in a week. It's proving that these changes work."

The last date for legislative session in Albany is slated for Thursday, June 6.