Critics, fans eye state bottle law on 1st anniversary

One year after New York's beverage container deposit law expanded to include bottled water, it has created jobs, increased the amount of plastic recycled and generated more revenue for the state than anticipated, according to both proponents and opponents of the legislation.

But store owners and trade groups say the program has become as difficult and expensive to manage as they anticipated.

"The expansion of the bottle bill more than doubled the amount of bottles and cans redeemed at our stores," said Thomas Cullen, vice president of King Kullen Grocery. "While this has created an extra burden for us - we definitely had to add more machines and add more man-hours - we're happy to provide Long Islanders with so many clean, organized redemption areas."

The state Department of Environmental Conservation said it has issued permits to 131 new bottle recycling centers - most stand-alone facilities not affiliated with stores - since the expanded law took effect on Oct. 31, 2009. Six centers are on Long Island, although supermarkets here handle most redemptions.

"The bottle bill has created jobs at redemption centers that have sprung up, mostly upstate, to collect the bottles, and the dollar amount estimated as revenue almost exactly matches up with what has been collected," said Assemb. Robert Sweeney (D-Lindenhurst), chairman of the Assembly Environmental Conservation Committee and a supporter of the program.

In the past year the state has collected more than $120 million in unclaimed nickel deposits, slightly more than the $118 million projected, according to the state finance department.

"There are fewer plastic water bottles showing up as litter," Sweeney said. But the state, trade, and environmental groups have not compiled statistics on how many water bottles have been recycled.

The New York Public Interest Research Group conducted a survey in February of supermarkets and convenience stores that found 93 percent complying with redemption requirements.

"We're learning how to live with it," said Jim Rogers, president of the Food Industry Alliance of New York State, a trade group for supermarkets. "The stores have had to find space someplace for the [redemption] machines or storing the bottles, so it can compromise the sales display area."

Barry Koff, owner of the C-Town Supermarket in Long Beach, said, "It's increased the price by a couple of dollars per case for the consumer. For the store, we're probably taking in anywhere between 20 and 40 percent more bottles in our machines, which means we need more labor to deal with them."

Consumers at King Kullen in Massapequa had mixed opinions about the law. "I use a lot of water bottles, so I try to return them," Christi Gray said as she redeemed a single bottle.

But Ann Yard, 71, said she stopped drinking bottled water because "I don't like paying the deposit."