Update the Bottle Bill

The Bottle Bill was passed into law in 1982 as the result of a popular referendum campaign. This was the first statewide recycling program in Massachusetts, and it remains our most successful recycling program.

Here’s how it works: When a retailer in Massachusetts buys beverages from a distributor, a five-cent deposit is paid to the distributor for each can or bottle purchased. When buying a beverage, the consumer pays the deposit to the retailer. The five-cent deposit is refunded when the consumer returns the empty beverage container to the retail store, a redemption center or a reverse vending machine. The retailer recovers the deposit from the distributor, plus an additional handling fee of $0.225 for handling the empty bottles and cans. The end result: containers end up recycled and reused instead of thrown away.

Not all consumers redeem their containers for the deposit. In Massachusetts, distributors and bottlers are required to turn over unclaimed deposits to the state. These funds used to go to the state’s Clean Environment Fund, which supported local and statewide recycling efforts.

Now we need to update the Bottle Bill: so that the deposit covers new containers, so that the handling fee is increased, and so that we can restore the Clean Environment Fund.

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