2013 Maine Bills

Several bills regarding recycling, and possibly relating to Maine's existing deposit law were introduced this year. Among them, a bill to specify the number of redemption centers that can be licensed in a municipality, and one to transfer the management of the deposit system to the Department of Environmental Protection.

The Redemption Center Bill

Bill Number and Name LD124/SP45 "An Act To Amend the Bottle Redemption Laws" Bill text
Sponsors Senator Roger Sherman
Reclamation System Sets limits on the number of redemption centers a municipility can license based on its population.

Progress

January 31, 2013 Introduced.

February 5, 2013 Referred to Committee on ENVIRONMENT AND NATURAL RESOURCES

May 14, 2013 Officially placed in the "dead" file

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The Managing Agency Bill

Bill Number and Name HP200 (LD291) Bill text
Sponsors Representative Janice Cooper

Details

This bill transfers administration of the provisions regarding returnable beverage containers from the Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry to the Department of Environmental Protection.

Progress

February 7, 2013 Introduced and referred to Committee on Agriculture, Conservation, and Forestry

March 21, 2103 Officially filed as dead.

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The Small Bottler Bill

Bill Number and Name HP0793 Bill text
Sponsors Representative Jones of Freedom, Johnson of Greenville, Nutting of Oakland, Powers of Naples, Short of Pittsfield, Villa of Harrison.

Details

Under the existing law, small brewers are exempt from the requirement to return unclaimed deposits to the state. This bill would expand this exemption to small "bottlers" rather than brewers. Originally, this bill would also have removed a provision about bottlers of water, who would now fall under the expanded category of "bottlers", but the amended and subsequently adopted version kept it in.

Progress

March 21, 2013: Introduced

Passed by the House and Senate on June 11 and 12, respectively. Signed into law (Public Law, chapter 259) on June 14.

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The Pickups Bill

Bill Number and Name SP 0362 Bill text
Sponsors Senator Hamper of Oxford

Details

This bill:

1. Requires that collections from redemption centers be made by a distributor or commingling group of distributors every 15 days and requires additional pickups to be made when the redemption center has more than 10,000 beverage containers from that distributor or group of distributors

2. Adds a requirement that the Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry adopt rules for conducting audits on containers presented to distributors by redemption centers as ready for redemption.

3. Provides a one-time allocation of funds.

Originally this bill contained provisions about auditing plastic bags containing beverage containers and about counting redemption centers, but they were stricken in an amendment and replaced with provisions 2 and 3 listed above.

Progress

March 20, 2013: Introduced and referred to to the Committee on ENVIRONMENT AND NATURAL RESOURCES

On May 23, the original was amended in Senate, and the final version passed in House and Senate on May 28 and 31, respectively. The bill passed into law (Public Law 275) without a signature on June 15, 2013.

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