Bottle deposit doubles to .20 in 2024. They should make nip bottle deposit $2.50 so there is big incentive to pick up the bottles the underage and closet alcoholics toss out their windows on our streets.

No our awesome legislators decided on a tax hike on nips that will only go to “towns” to pay for cleanup.

So the local drunks still toss their nips in my yard and the town isn’t picking through my lawn.

This link is not behind a paywall. Fuck you, Tribune.

https://www.wtnh.com/news/connecticut/these-new-connecticut-laws-take-effect-on-jan-1/

Bottle deposit is currently 5 cents, doubles to 10 cents in 2024. They should eliminate it, but they won't because it's a huge source of revenue for the state - most people recycle the bottles instead of returning them

Yeah! Screw a company trying to pay their employees! Everything should be free!

(/S...)

The copious ads on all of their websites and in their publications should provide all the revenue they need. My mother was a reporter for 24 years; I know how the newspaper industry works.

My mom was a nurse for 35 years but I'm not telling the hospital how to administrate. https://www.forbes.com/sites/bradadgate/2021/08/20/newspapers-have-been-struggling-and-then-came-the-pandemic/?sh=1cc8c9cc12e6

I'm more of an opponent of billion-dollar hedge funds/venture capital firms buying out media companies and then forcing them to follow their "philosophies". See: Sinclair Media

Also, $308MM in revenue is hardly struggling. And thanks for the Forbes link, which is also behind a paywall. Or they want me to create an account, which they will then sell the information from to anyone who pays their asking fee. Remember, if it's free, you're the product.

https://www.zoominfo.com/c/tribune-publishing-company-llc/146309212

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I’d be rich after raking my front yard

They don’t make recycling for the redemption easy, and they don’t really want to.

>Blair said the tax would increase the cost of goods the trucks transport.

>“It’s a simple business equation that will get passed along the way, eventually, to the consumers. And certainly, in a time like this, you know, consumer goods are very high in all places we shop. This is only going to make them go higher,” Blair said.

And what about the fact that tractor trailers are largely the ones responsible for the damage to our roadways? How does that cost get passed along, Mr. Blair?

https://truecostblog.com/2009/06/02/the-hidden-trucking-industry-subsidy/

This is great news. It was set to 5 cents in 1980. That’s roughly equivalent to 18 cents today. People don’t give a shit about a nickel anymore so everyone tosses the cans. 20 cents tho? That will definitely have people returning them.

Imagine describing Alden Global Capital as a little old company just trying to pay their employees!

Literally laughable after what they did to the Courant.

I'm down with the 10 cent bottle deposit coming from 2024, but the state needs to set up more processing locations where they have high speed counters where you can just dump stuff into a hopper. It's simply not worth enough peoples time to go and single feed even at 10 cents.

It's not about cleaning the roads. The government just wants the money.

lol not great news. That's $2.40 more you'll have to pay for a 12 pack of soda just for can deposits.

Have you seen the lines and condition of most grocery store can return centers?

Well you’re not paying 2.40 extra if you bring the bottle back. I’ve never had to wait in line to return cans.

I keep saying this. Can we start contacting our elected officials to try to put something together, because I just think this system is so antiquated. Clearly they aren’t in a big rush to fix that problem because they’re just hoping we don’t redeem all those cans and bottles and the state can just pocket more money.

Perhaps I'm not so jaded yet, but the big motivation has been to keep the cans/bottles off the side of the street. Sure the state gets their cut when stuff doesn't get turned in, but I'm thoroughly convinced nothing has happened because there are bigger fish to fry.

There needs to be a law that stores accept any deposit returns. It's aggravating to see "store does not accept this brand". If it's a deposit container, it should be returnable anywhere with machines.

Nips should have a $5 tax, or be banned completely. They exist only to help alcoholics sneak drinks while driving.

My issue is that the machines are always full or broken, and the bins near them for non refundable bottles are full too, so I end up bringing them home which I really don’t want to do.

I hope you realize that $308 million is gross, not net profit. They posted a $27 million profit in 2021 and that's only because of cuts. The past decade every other year has seen net profit struggle to break a half percent and that's when they didn't lose money outright.

I hate ad banners and pay walls with a passion; I always run ad blockers and use 12ft.io where possible. The internet killed newspapers and we're all complicit. Consumers expect everything on the internet to be free.

There's one tiny use case for nips aside from alcoholics -- liqueurs that may be used in small quantities in cooking or baking. Have picked up a few for that purpose when it's something that would otherwise sit in the cupboard taking up space. Deposits would be totally acceptable for that market; I think $1 would do a pretty good job of keeping them from becoming litter.

It’s messed up, I am forced by my city to pay for single stream recycling so either I’m paying a 10 cent tax per can if I use that for a service I pay for or I have to go and waste time returning the cans of I want my money back. I should be able to get my money if I use recycling from home. That’s the point of the deposit to get people to recycle. I should not be punished because my city has single stream recycling.

https://cans-4-a-cause.org/ will take your cans and the proceeds help those in need.

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What about those who have recycling pick up? The point is to recycle not to use cans as a revenue source. We are punishing thousands of people who live in cities and towns who have recycling picked up for doing the right thing.

I’ve had recycling pick up my entire life. I still bring my cans back. It’s not a punishment. You’re welcome to surrender the money if you so choose but you can bring your cans back too

I sometimes buy nips to try an alcohol before I buy a full $30 bottle of it. I have also purchased them as gifts when there was a spending limit. There are used for sure.

You voted for them.

besides the machines being full or broken....the stench is unbearable for people that get migraines.

Don't know what part of the state you're in. But I would save my cans until I had a bunch then go to an actual redemption center. Dump them in a counter and be out in like 5 min.

Don't bother with going to a grocery store or whatever where you have to hand feed the cans

At least the politicians will be able to afford increased prices!

Who doesn't have recycling pick up? You just don't put the cans in there.

If you don't want to go to a store to return the cans one at a time, look up redemption centers, they have large counters you can just dump a bag into.

So you’re paying for single stream recycling and then still taking the cans in. That is still a punishment. The point of the deposit is to incentivize recycling. They are making you waste your time because you can’t use a service you pay for without losing money. Do you see why that is stupid? So either I use a service I have to pay for by my city and lose money on the bottle deposit or go to the nasty ass return place and waste my time there to get my money back. I’ll say it one more time the whole purpose is to get people to recycle if I put my cans in to the recycle bin that I’m doing my part why should I then be punished by paying a 1.20 tax on every 12 pack for using a service I have to pay for?

That’s just like your opinion man! You can choose not to support it. I like it and will continue to support it because lately there’s been more and more cans on the side of the road because nobody gives a shit. You could also stop buying products that use deposits. Tap water is deposit free, fountain drinks and draught beer are deposit free.

And skiing.

Small towns with no garbage pick up don’t. When I lived in Danielson we didn’t have garbage pick up where I was. We had to take our trash to the dump and use special bags. Also as I said in another comment I’d you are paying for a service but then can’t use that service because of a tax it is kind of stupid the point of this is to recycle not to collect revenue for the state. If people are recycling via single stream why do you need the deposit? What I see is a scam. So you pay the recycler to come pick up your cans which they resell at a profit and the state collects a 10 cent revenue meanwhile your dumb ass pays for both the take away of the cans and the deposit. And don’t say just take it in because that is also a waste of your time the opportunity cost for many people isn’t worth it. It’s just another hidden tax on people. If there was a tax way to rebate towns that use single stream recycling that would make it fair as the whole purpose of the deposit is to incentivize recycling not be a revenue stream.

So again you punish the people who do the right thing, recycle their cans, but because they don’t do it the least effective way possible they get punished? An easy fix for this is a tax rebate for towns with single stream recycling. Why not give those town’s resident 50 dollars off their income taxes? That would be equal to one twelve pack a week for a year roughly. That way you keep the deposit but don’t punish residents who use recycle bins for having the audacity of recycling in an easy manner.

I’d like to add people do the easiest thing and I’d argue single stream recycling has done more to increase recycling than a deposit. Most people don’t have the time or energy to go to a recycling center but give them a blue bin and let them put it on the curb next to their normal trash and they are more likely to do it because it’s no extra effort on their part.

Single stream recycling is basically a myth anyway. Most of it goes into landfills (somewhere in the vicinity of 90%). It’s not a punishment. You have options. Buying canned beverages isn’t a god given right. It’s a choice you make. You can choose to buy your products a different way

Nearest one is a 35 minute drive. I'd have to save a ton of cans to make it remotely worth it. Maybe once they bump to 10 cents it'll be better, but it's not a good option for me.

I used to fill 55 gallon bags. I could get three of them to fit in my car, would pull like $60.

Of course, that was back when i used to work in an office and it was like 10 minutes from there so i would just go on lunch break or something.

Not sure where you are, but those places are super uncommon these days

If people cared about recycling there wouldn't be shit all of the side of the road. At least with a deposit it means, at the very least, cans are picked up off the road and returned.

I just wish they'd make it a deposit on nips instead of a flat tax. That's the current plague of trash all over roadways.

If you don't want the state to collect your revenue, just donate the cans. Just look around you probably have boy scouts, school sports, an animal shelter, something that is running a can drive trying to raise money.

I dread doing this, it’s filthy, it takes forever, half the time the machines are broken and it takes a year to find an employee to fix them. I’m fine with the deposit, but the state needs to require a more efficient method for redemption. I’d just toss them in the recycling, but usually I let them pile up until I have $30 or so worth and it seems wasteful to just not collect on that.

In all seriousness, CT has a part-time legislature and it's tough for a lot of them to find regular jobs that will accommodate their legislative + campaign schedules; raising salaries helps ensure that people who aren't independently wealthy can still serve in the CGA.

Also, $40k/year merely brings CT up to the same level as other state legislatures that make similar demands of their members, despite being way more expensive to live in than most of those states.

I used to live in Hartford county, there are a couple north of Hartford up the river.

And literally any sporting event, Casino, concert or fair. Having a car full of people on the way to an event with varying liquor preferences is impossible to accommodate without nips. People in this sub are so tone deaf with the "only alcoholics need nips". If anyone actually knew, it's not nips. It's the cheapest liquor in the largest most concealable size... Hence the 5th. Most chronic alcoholics visit the same store a handful of times throughout the day. Nips wouldn't even get the day rolling let alone get you to your lunch break. And on top of it, the beauty of nips for most of us who don't drink aside from events or special occasions, we don't have to buy an entire bottle, and Once the nips are gone, Im cut off. No "one more drink, there isn't much left" that turns into a sloppy mess afterwards. If you think nips are the problem, I encourage you to grow up and look for the real root cause of the problem we have which is people who don't care about the communities they live in enough to keep them clean. It's always the fault of the object in this state, zero accountability on its citizens.

Yeah, I’m south of Hartford and the only one I can remember existing was in a sketchy neighborhood on Slater Rd in New Britain where you’d generally be accosted by people looking for booze and / or drug money before you even got out of the car

Bottle deposits no longer make any sense and my local rep agreed. Now that recycling is part of every day life this is no longer needed. I want to take my cans and put them into the blue bin, not waste my time going to a place to recycle them.

It's a bit difficult to conceal winging a 5th out your window on the way to work, and a career alcoholic certainly doesn't want empties rolling around their car if they get stopped. Hence the nips; hence the litter.

I really don't give a shit why anyone buys them; I'm just tired of cleaning them off my fucking lawn. They need a deposit, and it should be sizeable to compensate those of us who have to clean up after the scumbags.

So if we both acknowledge that there's an issue with litter. Why not go after the scumbags? It just seems all to familiar to when that one loser would act up in kindergarten and get recess taken away from the other 99%.

The best one I went to, i believe, was in South Windsor.

I think there's on in Vernon, that one wasn't to bad either.

It’s a minor regressive tax at best and a way to very cheaply employ the homeless at worst. I’m all for making less waste and recycling and whatnot, but the bottle deposit is a weird way of doing it. 5 or 10 cents isn’t enough to matter for most people.

There’s one in Manchester on Hilliard as well

Please god no.

This is exactly what a bottle deposit does. If you are responsible with your nips, you are not harmed by a $1 deposit - you get your money back when you return them. It targets the litterers directly by hitting them in the pocketbook.

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legislators dont need a raise. gomd with that bs

It kind of pisses me off that any place that's allowed to charge a deposit can just scan it and add it to the price, but it costs me my time and effort to return it. I'd propose that any place that can charge a deposit should be required to refund it just as fast so long as it's returned in the same manner i.e. sorted and packed into the case. If I buy a case of bud light and return the sorted empties in the same box, they should be able to credit me as fast as they charged me. Mom and Pop liquor stores do it easily, but Costco makes me stand outside and shovel them in by hand. They should have someone there just scanning off credit or giving cash.

Nips are also good for taking through TSA if you want to bring some booze with you on a flight for various reasons.

I, and plenty other people have. Just because it's not an inconvenience for you doesn't mean it's not incredibly inconvenient for others. And it's most inconvenient for the people who actually need the money back the most, the people who have to work two jobs to survive. I saw above about people not having to load them one by one, I live right next to New Haven and everywhere here you have to wait for a machine then load them into antiquated machines one by one. More time than it's worth for a lot of people so it's going to be interesting to see how much less bottles are actually getting bought when it costs 4x as much for the redemption fee and they haven't improved infrastructure for it.

I feel like you're really making a lot of assumptions about me. My wife and I have 4 jobs between the two of us. I still wouldn't call it "incredible inconvenience" that's pretty dramatic.

No. If im responsible with my nips, I would dispose or them like a contributing member of society. If I buy a sleeve of nips, which cost 10 bucks... And there's a 1 dollar deposit, I'm spending 20 dollars. I now have to make sure I save them all.... Put them in a separate bag, and then go out of my way to return them. At that point I'll buy the 22 dollar bottle to get 3x the volume and throw it away like an adult that should have thrown the nips out the exact same way, in the trash/recycle. Frankly, if nips have a $1+ return you may as well just litter them, at least thats what the money is supposedly going towards? Cleanup? Get what you pay for, and maybe you make some bum's day in the process.

i'm reminded of the Sienfeld episode where Kramer and Newman head to Michigan to take nickel deposits to Michigan and in an attempt to get 10c refunds. If I hold onto a 30 pack of nickel deposits, can I cash them in at the new rate later on?

25 cent deposit on all packaged goods and 1 dollar nip deposit

It’s so people don’t litter like before the 70’s.

Cause i will get blackberry brandy all over my clothes and therefore anything else i touch for minimim wage.

I was for that reason, now it's because the state pockets the unclaimed deposits. If they raise it to .20 they have to assume it's not high enough to account for a a reduction in state revenue. Will 400% more cans get returned if they're worth .20 as opposed to .05? I'm going to guess no because it's still too inconvenient to redeem them.

Yeah, you sound like a responsible adult whining about collecting all your nips up. Just remind your mom to do it after she's done wiping your ass.

As an employee of one of those supermarkets that people cash in at, I’m a little confused on what you want us to do or what you think we’re doing wrong. Definitely our machines break down too often and we don’t have enough staff to fix them quickly enough, but it seems you feel the system in of itself is flawed.

Expanding bottle deposit is costing them money tho

The pay went from 28k to 40k. It hadn't been raised in like 40 years.

I use a bottle redemption center. They take basically all the brands and have much faster counting machines; about 18 at a time. Glass you just take in the box and they count the box.

There's no need for bottle redemption. Recycling is already mandatory.

Nearest one to me is 25 minute drive. That’s not worth the gas.

The intent was to promote people to not litter, and if people do, someone else is likely to come along and pick it up.

Also, as far as garbage pickup, was there not a private company that could be contracted out for that area?

Back when i lived in Marlborough, the town didn't have trash/recycling either. But there was a private company that would do it (i just brought my stuff to the transfer station)

Not everyone feels the same way.

I know several people that drink nips responsibly. It's just that enough people treat their whole life like a trash can that it becomes a problem for everyone.

Im willing and able to throw em in the trash. Not keep them in a bag in my trunk for a week. Think of licking my taint while you keep having to pick them up off your yard.

Then they have a lot to learn. I've made it very clear to my reps that this is yet another tax.

Legislators should have seven figure salaries to make them less willing to take bribes, and voters should be able to sentence incumbent legislators to prison with an 80% vote threshold.

And what about those who live in apartments that don't have access to blue bins?

So the state just increased the cost of me making 3d printer filament?

They don't recycle in apartments? Sounds to me like that is a bigger issue. All this time give by and that hasn't been figured out is not my problem and I and others should not be paying a deposit (which is going to double by the way).

There are a few locations north of Hartford that has this. Very quick and convenient, love it!

Don't go putting words in my mouth. I'm talking about the blue bins you hold so dear

How about the word recepticle, does that fit you better? SMH

Stealth welfare program.

There not that uncommon we have a few here as well in New Haven county

Bottle returns are useless. Other states that have no bottle deposits are clean of bottle debris and smelly machines.

Im with it. See more nips all over the place vs the plastic bags that were an "issue".

Damn dude, I hope 10x as many people toss nips in your yard after reading that comment.

That way you can call the town and put all those good tax dollars you’re advocating to add to the state to use and have them come clean it up.

Wait, you’re telling me us regular civilians will pay more in taxes while state legislatures will earn more money to make more laws that make us pay more?

What? Why are legislators getting a raise? Thought they just had one.

I just got a seltzer maker and im gonna stop buying cans if I can.. I hate going to the smelly recycling place. More water. ... beer might be a problem .. but maybe local growlers ??

I have recycling pickup in my town, I just put the cans/bottles into their own bags that I don't bring out to the curbside. Once every couple of months, I take the deposit bottles to a redemption center. Not really sure what's so hard about that?

genuinely curious why anyone thinks this "tax" is still OK. What benefit does it bring to the constituents or the community? its just a headache and extra work vs just throwing your recyclables into a regular recycling bin

what do you like about it?

And they do literally nothing for us citizens. Nothing.

Never seen an apt that doesn't allow recycling...

It seems like people are littering more then ever. I hope this helps to control it.

yup yup. why would i pay $5,328 for a few beers at an event when i can load up me socks with nippers?

$5 tax? hell no buddy, get bent! fully agree nippers are irrationally triggering in this sub.

excuse me buddy, i can legally grow cannabis next year thanks to the state legislature and ned's mighty pen

all this nonsense focus on nips, the hell... i just want to say cheers to the expanded coverage for breast and ovarian cancer screenings because cancer needs to get fucking bent. furthermore i want to say cheers to erasure of minor cannabis possession convictions and similar low-level crimes. many connecticunts will now have an easier time finding employment, housing, etc. i'll smoke to that. thanks state legislators. thanks ned.

Can someone explain to me who is buying/drinking all of these nips!? If your that broke, just buy a plastic jug of vodka.

>I want to take my cans and put them into the blue bin, not waste my time going to a place to recycle them

Been doing this for years now. It's so much easier and not worth the hassle of dealing with returning them. I don't go through many empties now but it wasn't worth piling them up and waiting to have enough to go. I maybe go through 100 empties a year, probably closer to 50. Most of those times it's because I took something to go and wouldn't be saving it to return anyways.

Exactly. We have really limited buying anything because of this deposit. We're about where you are in terms of number of cans, etc.

In this age going to a depository is ridiculous and unnecessary. The whole point of this was to get people to recycle. Now, it becomes a tax not only on the wallet but as in time as well. CT is overtaxed and little things like this helps.

Useful info.

The time was the big one for me. When I was a kid it was worth my time to return a shit ton of empties. After graduating college and getting a career not so much.

The deposit wasn't really the limiting factor, moreso the calories. Prior to cutting regular soda and beer we had plenty of empties and I still couldn't be bothered to take them to the store as it was such a waste of time and huge pain in the ass. I figured my time was worth more than the few dollars but I understand that isn't always the case for most.

Some unsolicited advice for those that it is worth their time, just try cutting the spending on deposited drinks. Water is free and much healthier. Anyone who is even slightly overweight might see a noticeable drop in weight upon cutting it. I know I sure did.

Yes, but there are plenty of sugar free options as well. At our parties most people drink water, just as you pointed out.

>Yes, but there are plenty of sugar free options as well.

For sure. The few remaining deposited bottles I buy are typically Perrier/Pellegrino outside of the occasionally 12 pack maybe once a quarter.

I don't drink soda or any alcoholic beverages. I have an r.o for my drinking water and I don't bother with bottles. I wonder have they done anything with nippers? I always see millions of them on the side of the road when I go for walks.

Sure, there was no recycling at the time this was originally passed. Now we have single stream recycling & there is no need. Unfortunately slobs will be slobs.

100% agree but this is a money grab for the state. They preach about renewed recycling initiative blah blah but they know many bottles/cans never get returned. I’d be surprised if they make it easier to return

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Maine has tons of redemption centers where the customer doesn’t have to do any sorting.

CT redemption centers are far and few between, and the in-store machines SUCK.

Someone gets it.

Pay raise for legislators of course! And I’m sure the truck tax won’t be passed along to us plebs in the grocery store!

Get rid of the bottle tax!!!!!

it is when you're paying an extra $1.20 for a 12 pack of soda when it goes up to 10c

the other funny thing with it is under the same law, stores are only obligated to take what they sell on the actual shelves, we drink a lot of soda at home, and occasionally wind up having to jump to different stores for certain brands.

like its blind luck if another stores brand goes through a certain machine

not to mention that the machines generally arent built for the thicker plastic bottles like gatorade, iced tea, and juice tend to use.

the coding is different for five and ten cent ones i believe so, probably not, but we'll find out jan1 2024

Doesn't the state have an excess billion or so from unclaimed bottle deposits? Do they want more? Instead of taxing us more they should raise it up now and have the ones that want to collect collect until that billion is gone

Pro-litterbug. Good for you, chief. Not often you see people defending the degenerates in our society.

I'm not advocating for a tax. I'm advocating for a deposit. But I'd also support a ban. If people are going to act like spoiled children when it comes to nips, then I'm perfectly fine with taking their toys away.

You’re already paying 60 cents with the current 5 cent deposit, so it’s a net 60 cent change. 60 cents won’t stop anyone from buying their soda, nor will an extra 5 cents per can motivate many more people to recycle.

They need to pat themselves on the back for holding eversource accountable…wait

Nah they aren’t. Parks and trails were disgusting up until the late 70’s. People used to dump trash wherever

Nah you just seem like an absolute cock and deserve what you get. Dude was making a fair point then you were an asshole to him for no reason. With that type of interaction I’m assuming whoever’s tossing nips in your lawn just doesn’t like you.

A deposit, IS a tax with how this state handles it. Machines don’t work or are always full. The minimum wage teenagers who work at the stores that even have them don’t know how to maintain or repair them, or they flat out won’t take what they don’t carry. For nips specifically they’d need special machines produced to take them mass produced then sent to every liquor store in the state, which would cost a TON of money. Or you could just make the liquor stores handle the returns, which then is a tax on them and their employees due to their time spent counting, inventorying, setting aside proper return funds, then bringing the empties to proper establishments. Not even counting how this entire process is a tax on your time in the first place.

All of this because YOU don’t have an adequate way of surveilling/protecting your own property, which is your responsibility in the first place.

Throw a camera up and grab their plates/faces and report them like every other homeowner does when someone is constantly defacing their property.

A deposit is not a tax, regardless of your thoughts on the matter. You are welcome to create whatever personal justifications you'd like to alter reality to your beliefs, just remember that reality doesn't give af about what you believe.

Package stores are already obligated to take returns given that a good number of their wares are subject to deposits already. Anyone with passing knowledge is already aware of this, but given your inability to distinguish between a deposit and a tax, your ignorance is understandable. As is your willingness to trample the rights of innocent 3rd parties harmed by the antisocial and illegal behavior at the root of the issue here.

Nevertheless, it's a good thing there are white knights like you around to come to the defense of helpless souls that would be subject to great injustice if they were expected to confirm to basic societal expectations like not throwing shit out of your car window. Seems like he's in the market for a taint-licker, and boy did you come running. I wish you both a happy future.

A “deposit” that is not easily refundable or in working order is a tax. Regardless of what legal nonsense CT legislators would like you to abide by. Especially when all “unclaimed” funds are collected by the state. No wonder they don’t bother making it easy, repair the machines, or automatic through town recycling.

Protecting your own property on the other hand is 110% your own responsibility. Just be an adult and throw a camera up. Get the guy a littering ticket or two and solve the problem. You don’t have to go to daddy Lamont to solve your trivial issues by making everyone else pay more money.