www.nypirg.org

Support Cleaner Communities and a Healthier Environment:
Pass the Bigger Better Bottle Bill!

New York’s Returnable Container Act, better known as the “Bottle Bill”  requires a 5-cent refundable deposit on beer and soda containers sold in New York. Since it was enacted in 1982, the bottle billhas been New York's most successful recycling and litter prevention program.

Over the past 25 years more than 90 billion bottles and cans have been returned and recycled through the bottle bill. More than six million tons of plastic, glass and metal have been kept out of our landfills and incinerators. There is less litter and broken glass in our streets, parks, playgrounds and beaches, making them safer, cleaner, and more attractive.

NYPIRG is now spearheading a statewide campaign to update and improve New York's bottle bill.  More than 600 groups, businesses, and local governments support the “Bigger Better Bottle Bill,” which would:

  1. Make our communities cleaner and increase recycling by updating the bottle bill to include deposits on non-carbonated beverages such as bottled water, iced teas, and sports drinks, which weren’t included in the original law because they barely existed back in 1982.  Today, nearly 3 billion non-carbonated beverage bottles and cans end up in the trash or polluting our state’s rivers, beaches, and neighborhoods each year because they don’t have a deposit.
  2. Generate new funding for local environmental needs by requiring beverage distributors to transfer any unclaimed deposits to the State Environmental Protection Fund.  Currently, beverage companies are keeping an estimated $140 million a year in unclaimed deposits from bottles and cans that are not returned.  New York is out of step with many other states, which require beverage companies to return unclaimed bottle deposits to benefit the public.  

Both the Governor and the NYS Assembly proposed including the Bigger Better Bottle Bill in the state budget this year.  But for the second year in a row, this proposal was blocked by the NYS Senate under Majority Leader Joseph Bruno.  

Speaking before a crowd at Earth Day Lobby Day on April 15th, 2008, Governor David Paterson pledged to make passage of the Bigger Better Bottle Bill one of his top environmental priorities for this legislative session.   

The Governor has submitted a program bill to both houses. 

On June 11th, the Assembly passed the Bigger Better Bottle Bill (A.8044-A/Sweeney) by a vote of 91 to 54 after nearly a 3-hour floor debate.  (Click here to see how your Assembly member voted). 

Now it is up to the Senate to take action.  A matching bill in the Senate (S.5850-A) has been introduced by Senators Marcellino, LaValle and Padavan.  But the Legislature plans to adjourn on June 23rd and time is running out for action on the bill this year.

 

Click here to Take Action Now! Please call your State Senator today!  Urge him or her to pass the Bigger Better Bottle Bill (/S.5850-A)  this year!