STRATFORD, Conn. — For people looking to get some cash back for all those holiday gifts, check your garbage cans. The value of all recyclable bottles and cans just doubled from a nickel to a dime in Connecticut.
“Start the year off right. A lot of smiles on people’s faces!” said Benjamin Sierra of Bridgeport.
He was one of many people who flocked to the state-of-the-art bottle return facility Bottle Return in Stratford on Monday.
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Eula Clark pulled into Bottle Return with a smile on her face and cans in her car.
“I just got my social security check and this is the rest of the money to help me out,” she said.
Clark left with cash in her pocket.
“Before it was like $100. Now they’ve doubled it and it’ll probably be almost $200,” she added.
Connecticut’s new bottle bill kicked in on New Year’s Day, doubling the deposit from 5 cents to 10 cents per bottle or can be redeemed. It means people make more when the bottles are redeemed, but it’s also a fee passed down to the customer, so it also means people pay more when they buy beverages.
Connecticut’s bottle bill was first passed in 1978 allowing redemption on things like soda cans. It wasn’t expanded until 2009 to include water bottles. And then again in 2021 to include energy drinks, juices, and teas.
“Unfortunately, some of them still are not covered by bottle deposit most notably those that contain liquor and I think it would be appropriate for the bottle bill to be expanded further,” remarked Conrad Cutler, president of Returnable Container Management.
Cutler runs the Stratford facility where there’s a cash machine and no need to sort by material. He showed FOX61 the heartbeat of the operation where five machines can sort up to 300 beverage containers per minute per machine. The containers then get automatically sorted and compacted.
The bottle boost brought new and returning customers to Stratford.
“We had families who came this morning, some of whom cashed out over $1,000,” said Cutler.
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Linda Lee has been canning for 12 years. She used redemption money to purchase two cars.
“Now I get a raise,” said Lee. “Do you know the people who come to your house and take your kids to school? I was only making $200 a week doing that. You make more by picking up bottles than you do with that.”
The state is banking that a higher redemption value will incentivize more people to recycle. Connecticut’s redemption rate is hovering around 44% compared to 81% in states that already have a 10-cent deposit.
The deposit fee isn’t the only thing doubling in the new year. With this new law, the number of locations where people can redeem bottles is also more than doubling to 710 across the state.
Matt Caron is a reporter at FOX61 News. He can be reached at mcaron@fox61.com. Follow him on Facebook, X and Instagram.
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