NY bottle recyclers rally for raises in Albany. Why they say they're in peril

Cardboard tombstones on the steps of Albany's state Capitol building bore the names of bottle redemption centers across the state — in Plattsburgh, Utica, Buffalo, Syracuse, Batavia, Brooklyn and elsewhere — that have shut down in recent months.

“New York is Killing Small Business,” one sign declared.

To make the point, Jade Eddy, cloaked head to toe in black and toting a plastic scythe, played the Grim Reaper.

“We’re currently being paid 2009 pay while suffering 2024 expenses,” said Eddy, the owner of MT Returnables in Queensbury, on Monday. “It’s become impossible to operate under those circumstances…It’s causing businesses to close down in droves. It’s put a lot of people out of work unnecessarily.”

As state lawmakers returned from a post-budget break, a coalition of small business owners, environmental groups and bottle collectors were there at the state Capitol to get their attention.

They called for updating the state’s 40-year-old Bottle Bill by doubling the nickel deposit for cans and bottles and expanding the types of containers that can be redeemed to include wine and liquor bottles and non-carbonated beverages like teas and sports drinks. New York would join Maine, California, Connecticut and Oregon as states that include non-carbonated beverages.

A second measure in the Bigger Better Bottle Bill would increase the 3.5-cent handling fee bottle redeemers like Eddy receive for turning in a container of beer, soda and water. A measure sponsored by Democrats Rachel May in the Senate and Deborah Glick in the Assembly would increase the fee to six cents. The last increase was in 2009 when the rate was two cents.

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They could use a raise

Bottle recyclers say inflation and a minimum wage increase are eating into revenue.

Peter Sidote, who’s run a redemption center on Long Island for 40 years, said 30 redemption centers — many of them upstate — have closed since the fall when state lawmakers held two days of hearings on recycling and other environmental issues. In 2018, there were 1,100 centers across the state. Sidote pegged the current total at around 750.

Their revenue is largely dependent on state lawmakers who decide how much they can receive for redeeming a container.

“So many things have gone up and we can’t absorb that,” said Sidote, a leader in the Empire State Redemption Association, which has 110 members. “We can’t change our redeemers any more for taking the products. They come in, we give them a nickel. And then when we have to hand it in, we get eight and a half cents.”

He was standing beside Debbie Loesch, the founder of a Long Island nonprofit called Angels of Long Island, which provides struggling families with groceries, diapers and other necessities.

Her Mastic organization has raised roughly $200,000 by recycling bottles picked up by Sidote’s business.

“During the pandemic the bottles actually saved my nonprofit,” she said.

Boy Scouts and church groups rely on bottle collection to raise funds. If more centers shut down, more cans and bottles will be left on roadways, center owners say.

$100M and more for the state

State officials say the Bottle Bill has been effective in keeping containers of beer, soda and water off streets and roadsides since it was introduced in 1983.

New York’s Bottle Bill redemption rate reached a record 70% in 2021, the last year for which totals were available. In 2021, the state took in $127 million from the program.

But Eddy said the totals would be even higher if sports drinks and other types of containers can be redeemed.

“I strongly believe if they expand the types of containers covered we would see the recycling rates skyrocket,” Eddy said as she pointed pointing to plastic bags filled with bottles and cans not covered by the current law. “I have to turn away all these containers because New York State doesn’t allow us to take these back under the current law.”

The bill would also create a grant program to assist redemption centers in deploying state-of-the-art technology to handle large amounts of containers.

Joining Monday’s rally were dozens of so-called canners who spend their days gathering up bottles and cans on city streets. They followed Sidote’s lead as he led them through the chorus of the popular Police song “Message in a Bottle.”

“Sending out an S.O.S.”

Among them was Rene del Carmen, who once worked as a canner but now serves as a facilities manager at Sure We Can, a nonprofit bottle redemption center in the Bushwick neighborhood of Brooklyn.

“Justice,” del Carmen said when asked why he traveled to Albany. “Something positive for recyclers who really need that deposit increase.”

Blair Horner, the executive director of the New York Public Interest Research Group, said the Bottle Bill needs an ovehaul.

"We're here to send an SOS to Albany that we're delivering a message in a bottle to every legislator urging them to support this legislation," Horner told the crowd.

This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: NY bottle recyclers rally for raises in Albany. Why they say they're in peril