WOODSTOCK — If legislation related to recyclables doesn’t change soon, Kathleen Stauffer, the CEO of The Arc Eastern Connecticut, said its redemption center in Woodstock, which employs people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, would close, as it is losing $50,000 a year.
“We are looking at that unpleasant reality right now if something isn’t done,” she said.
One way their situation could be helped is with the passing of new bottle law. State Sen. Christine Cohen, D-Guilford, co-chairwoman of the Environment Committee, held a press conference at the facility on Monday morning to encourage legislation for the raising and expansion of bottle deposits in Connecticut.
“By and large, the constituents of Connecticut want to see an updated bottle bill,” she said. “They don’t want to be contributing to a trash problem.”
The current iteration of proposed bottle bill would raise deposits on cans of soda, beer and water to 10 cents, add juice, tea, sports drinks and energy drinks to containers that needed deposits.
“This is a tragedy for waste in the State of Connecticut,” Cohen said.
Stauffer also suggested adding 25 cent deposits on “nips”, which are 50ml liquor bottles.
Cohen argued the importance of raising the deposits, which largely haven’t been changed in 30 years, is to ensure recycling centers like the one The ARC runs in Woodstock are able to make money. Currently, they receive handling fees of 1.5 cents per beer container and 2 cents for other containers. With new legislation, handling fees will go up 3.5 cents for beer containers and 4.5 cents for other containers.
“At the very least, the people who pick these things up should be rewarded,” Stauffer said.
Cohen said dedicated redemption centers are able to do a better job at recycling smaller beverage containers. When soda cans and beer bottles are recycled by a town, they often don’t have the resources to make sure the trash is clean enough to be used in manufacturing. Towns may have to pay to have recyclable taken elsewhere, or they may just end up burned or in landfills.
At the press conference, there was bipartisan representation from state legislators, including state Sen. Cathy Osten, D-Sprague, and state Reps. Brian Lanoue, R-Griswold, Rick Hayes, R-Putnam, and Anne Dauphinais, R-Killingly.
Dauphinais asked many questions during the conference, including about how the current deposit system works.
“That nickel they pay at the store, where does it then go to?” she asked.
Julie Cammarata, the principal of Cammarata Government Affairs, a lobbying firm, explained to Dauphinais that the fees given to redemption centers are built into the cost of the product, whereas the deposit itself is extra.
“They’ll get their handling fee, and then the state knows how much was left in its coffers at the end of the year,” she said.
Stauffer was pleased with the turnout to the conference and addressed the room at the end.
“Thank you for caring. It means a lot,” she said. “We’re going to continue putting people to work in Connecticut.”
