NY bottle redemption centers seek to increase handling fee

Jade Eddy, owner of MT Returnables in Queensbury, loads a bag of cans onto a pile in this 2021 file photo. Eddy is lobbying state lawmakers to increase the bottle handling fee because redemption centers are facing rising costs and some have closed.

QUEENSBURY — Jade Eddy is closing MT Returnables in Queensbury for a day, but it's not for a leisurely respite.

Eddy will be leading a demonstration outside the state Capitol in Albany at noon Tuesday in hopes of convincing the state Legislature to increase the handling fee the state pays redemption centers and supermarkets to handle bottle and can returns.

"We apologize for the inconvenience, but legislators have given us no choice," Eddy posted recently on Facebook.

The 3.5 cent per-container handling fee, in place since 2008, has not kept pace with inflation, Eddy said in a recent telephone interview.

"Our livelihood (as small business owners) and the livelihood of our employees is on the line," she said.

The handling fee comes from a fund for bottle and can deposits paid at point of purchase, but left unclaimed when containers are not returned.

The unclaimed funds are significantly more than what the state pays in handling fees, but some of the revenue is diverted to the state general fund.

Eddy opted to organize a protest after she telephoned the offices of every member of the Assembly Environmental Conservation Committee in May, urging the committee to advance proposed legislation to increase the handling fee for a vote of the full Assembly before the end of the Legislative session on Thursday.

Eddy said the matter is urgent.

Dozens of redemption centers around the state have closed, including the former Jan's Cans in Fort Edward, which closed in April.

"I get news almost every day of another closure," Eddy said.

Assemblyman Matt Simpson, R-Horicon, who serves on the Environmental Conservation Committee, said he sympathizes with Eddy's plight, but it has been difficult to reach consensus on how best to increase the handling fee.

Several different bills have been introduced, most of which couple increasing the handling fee with an increase in the bottle and can deposit or expanding the bottle deposit program to include liquor and wine bottles, both of which are controversial.

"There's multiple areas that the state is looking at, and this (raising the handling fee) is one of them," he said.

Assemblywoman Carrie Woerner, D-Round Lake, has introduced legislation to increase the handling fee from 3.5 cents per container to 5 cents per container, with no increase in the deposit or expansion to wine and liquor bottles.

Woerner's legislation would be paid for by the state reducing the percentage of unclaimed deposits it diverts to the general fund from 80% to 47%.

"Let's do a nearer fix for the redemption centers while we work on the broader issues," Woerner said.

Woerner said that her bill is the only legislation addressing bottle and can redemption that has a Senate companion legislation sponsor.

Woerner said she is concerned that as redemption centers close, people are discarding bottles and cans instead of returning them, which is counterproductive to the goal of the bottle deposit program to encourage recycling.

Some have suggested that supermarkets could pick up the slack as redemption centers close, but supermarket redemption systems do not have the capacity to handle the increased volume, Eddy said.

"Hannaford cannot take on the nearly four million containers I took in last year," she said.

Eddy said redemption centers have a social impact, as well, by setting up accounts for those redeeming containers to donate their refunds to charities.

Last year, she distributed more than $33,000 to more than 30 local charities, she said.

Simpson said it's not likely, although not impossible, that the Assembly Environmental Conservation Committee would schedule a special meeting to reconsider advancing legislation before the close of the legislative session on Thursday.

Even if the committee advances the legislation, it could not be enacted until next year, at the earliest, because it must be part of a state budget, Woerner said.

Maury Thompson covered local government and politics for The Post-Star for 21 years before he retired in 2017. He continues to follow regional politics as a freelance writer.

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