A recent article suggested the deposit on bottles be raised from 5 to 10 cents. The author, an Augusta resident, was upset that he had to drive to Gardiner to get his money back. He thinks increasing the deposit will keep more redemption centers open.
To be sure, redemption centers don’t get any of the deposit, and wouldn’t get any benefit from an increase. The deposit is the incentive for Maine people to return their empty bottle. And as the author himself demonstrated, a nickel is more than sufficient.
The current redemption rate reported to the Maine DEP by the larger beverage distributors is over 80%, as good as any of the ten states that still have a bottle bill. And unlike other states, Maine’s redemption rate remained high throughout the pandemic.
What a deposit increase will do is increase costs for redemption centers, the very people the author wants to help. Redemption centers loan about $50 million worth of nickels to people returning beverage containers. That amount will double if the deposit is raised to a dime.
A deposit increase will drive even more retail business over the border to New Hampshire and will make bottle bill fraud — a chronic challenge — even worse. Bottle bill fraud comes from the millions of beverages purchased in New Hampshire and Massachusetts without a deposit that are brought into Maine and illegally redeemed. It’s also caused by “shorted” bags from some redemption centers that don’t properly fill those bags for pickup.
Bottle bill fraud costs Maine distributors – and ultimately Maine consumers – approximately $7 million every year. That figure goes up — immediately — if fraudulent bottles are worth 10 cents instead of 5. Higher deposits also encourage more people to commit more bottle bill fraud.
Redemption centers are paid by beverage distributors. They get 4½ cents — a handling fee mandated by the Legislature — for every beer, wine, liquor, soda, juice, and water bottle that’s returned. The handling fee is in addition to the 5-cent deposit. Most people, including the otherwise knowledgeable author of the article, aren’t aware of that.
There are some who might say “well, just increase the handling fee.” Before considering that, though, consider this:
The handling fee was raised a full cent — nearly 30% — in 2019. Maine has the highest handling fee in the country. New York’s is 3.5 cents; Connecticut’s ranges from 2.5 to 3.5 cents; Massachusetts’ ranges from 2.25 to 3.25 cents, all states with a much higher cost of living.
Maine beverage consumers pay $45 million in handling fees every year. If there’s a problem with the bottle bill, these numbers would suggest that it’s not the deposit or the handling fee. There’s plenty of money being spent on the system.
The problem is the system we have today has not kept up with the times. As anyone who’s been inside of a redemption center knows, most bottles returned for deposit in Maine are individually counted by hand and sorted by brand and size — a tremendous expense. That’s exactly the same as in 1978 when the bottle bill was implemented.
In the meantime, recycling, technology, consumers, and packaging have changed — dramatically. Other states have adapted to these changes and followed approaches to keep recycling rates high,
control costs and improve convenience for consumers. Beverage distributors in Oregon have built an entirely automated system for collecting containers that is self-funding and has no handling fee. Beverage distributors and producers of other consumer products in Colorado supported — and helped pass — legislation giving them the authority to design an efficient and cost-effective way to collect their packaging for recycling without a deposit.
Our goal is to ensure we get every bottle back. The containers we sell are made to be remade. We want them back so we can recycle them and so they don’t end up in our roads, rivers or landfills.
We ought to be able to achieve that goal and at the same time be respectful of our customers’ checkbook. Before we invest more money into an old system, perhaps we might consider if there’s a more efficient and less expensive way to do it.
Newell Augur is executive director of the Maine Beverage Association.
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