AUGUSTA — State lawmakers are considering nearly a dozen bills to update Maine’s bottle deposit and redemption system, as redemption centers struggle with the impact of a 2016 voter-approved minimum wage increase.

Among other changes, many of the bills either increase the handling fee paid to redemption centers or increase the bottle and can deposits paid by consumers, as well as the handling fees.

Voters approved an incremental minimum wage increase that reaches $12 an hour in 2020 and will then be pegged to inflation in future years.

The proposals before the Legislature’s Environment and Natural Resources Committee propose a range of deposit increases, including one that would bump the basic bottle deposit from 5 cents to 15 cents and the deposit on wine and liquor bottles from 15 cents to 45 cents.

Maine voters first passed the state’s bottle redemption law at the ballot box in 1976, it went into effect in 1978, largely as a roadside litter control measure.

According to the Container Recycling Institute, Maine collects more recyclable beverage containers per capita than any other state in the nation thanks, in large part, to the bottle bill. In 2010, each Mainer turned in, on average, more than 700 recyclable bottles and cans compared to roughly 200 containers in states without a deposit. Those testifying Wednesday also touted the state’s high container recycling rate of close to 90 percent.

Donald Cook, the owner of Rolando’s Redemption in South Portland, said he’s been in business since the law was first passed. He said redemption centers frequently provide jobs for the disabled or those in recovery, and without the ability to increase their revenue, the centers are unable to keep up with rising expenses like mandated wage increases but also other costs of doing business including utilities and mortgage or lease costs.

“If I’m going to knock my head against the wall I’m not going to do it,” Cook told the committee. Other former redemption center owners said the increase in the minimum wage had already forced them from business.

Redemption centers currently receive a 3.5 cent handling fee for the bulk of the containers they handle, and a 4 cent fee for a few others. The various bills would increase the handling fee up to 8 cents.

Rep. Peter Lyford, R-Eddington, a sponsor of one of the bills, said redemption centers have no ability to increase their revenues, unlike other businesses that can offset rising labor costs by increasing the prices on their goods and services.

“Most businesses have the ability to raise their revenues,” Lyford said. “The problem isn’t the minimum wage, the problem is they can’t respond to that like you could by increasing the price of (for example) a jar of baby food.”

But beverage manufacturers, including Maine’s craft brewing industry, oppose increases to handling fees and bottle deposits, which they pay or are paid by their customers.

Sen. Heather Sanborn, D-Portland, who is also the owner of Rising Tide Brewery, which manufactures several varieties of craft beer, said raising the deposit on bottles and cans to 15 cents would put her company and others in Maine at a competitive disadvantage, as much of the beer they sell is consumed outside of Maine. Sanborn urged the committee to take a more comprehensive approach to reforming the state’s landmark bottle redemption law.