Bagged cans pile up at Sure We Can in Brooklyn, a non-profit recycling center and community space, on March 13, 2024. Spencer Platt/Getty Images A community member and can collector brings in cans and bottles to Sure We Can, a nonprofit recycling center and community space in Brooklyn, on March 13, 2024. Spencer Platt/Getty Images

In a state that prides itself on environmental leadership, New York is failing spectacularly when it comes to one of its most basic recycling policies: the Bottle Bill.

For over a decade, advocates, redemption centers and community groups have called for critical updates to this law. Yet despite clear evidence of success in other states and mounting local consequences, New York lawmakers remain shamefully stagnant.

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The Bigger, Better Bottle Bill (A6543/S5684) should be a no-brainer. It would expand the types of containers covered under the law, increase the deposit to boost recycling rates and raise the handling fee to keep redemption centers afloat. These changes are essential, not just environmentally but economically. And still, legislators won’t move. Why?

The answer is as clear as a plastic water bottle in a landfill: corporate influence. Big beverage companies have lobbied hard to block meaningful reform. But lawmakers cannot continue to prioritize protecting corporate interests, because the redemption system is collapsing.

In just the past two years, 168 redemption centers have shuttered, taking more than 700 jobs with them. These weren’t just numbers on a spreadsheet; they were community-based small businesses, environmental stewards and reliable sources of employment. Our demise is a direct result of legislative failure.

Consumers, too, are being robbed. Every unredeemed deposit is money pocketed by beverage companies and the state — a silent theft that disproportionately hits the most vulnerable. With fewer redemption options and stores increasingly refusing large returns, that nickel deposit feels less like a recycling incentive and more like a regressive tax.

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The most tragic impact, however, is on the community groups that have long depended on bottle drives for vital fundraising. Churches, food pantries, youth programs and scout troops — many of whom collect tens of thousands of containers annually — now find themselves without redemption partners. Some groups stand to lose as much as $20,000 a year. That’s money meant for meals, scholarships and life-changing local support, gone because lawmakers won’t act.

The Bottle Bill is a common-sense upgrade with real results. By expanding container coverage, it shifts the cleanup burden off of taxpayers and ensures recycling. Raising the deposit incentivizes higher return rates, as seen in states like Connecticut. And by increasing handling fees and allowing store partnerships with redemption centers, the bill would stabilize the system and relieve pressure on retailers.

Legislation to modernize the Bottle Bill has been introduced in some form since 2011. Fourteen years of inaction is not just neglect; it’s legislative malpractice.

New York lawmakers have several bills on the table. They have solutions. What they seem to lack is the courage to stand up to powerful corporations and the integrity to put people and communities first.

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With every bill left in committee, every job lost, every fundraiser canceled and every can sent to a landfill, our leaders make a choice. It’s time they chose better.