| Name | New York State Returnable Container Act |
| Purpose | Reduce litter, ease burden on solid waste facilities and encourage recycling activity |
| Enacted | 6/15/1982 |
| Date Implemented | 7/1/1983 |
| Regulations | New York State Environmental Conservation Law, Article 27, Title 10 |
| Beverages Covered | Carbonated soft drinks, soda water, beer and other malt beverages, wine products and water which does not contain sugar (this excludes flavored or nutritionally enhanced water from the program) |
| Containers Covered | An individual, separate, sealed glass, metal, aluminum, steel or plastic bottle, can or jar less than 1 gallon or 3.78 liters. |
| Amount of Deposit | 5¢ |
| Reclamation System | Retail stores and redemption centers |
| Handling Fee | 3.5¢ |
| Unredeemed Deposits | 80% retained by the State: $23 million goes to the state Environmental Protection Fund (and any escheats in excess of $122.2 million); remainder goes to the state's General Fund. 20% retained by deposit initiators (beverage distributors). |
| Redemption Rate |
2021 - 70.4% |
| % of All Beverages Sold That Are Covered By Deposit | 78% [2] |
Details
No one shall sell or offer for sale a beverage container in New York unless a deposit has been collected by a deposit initiator that is registered with the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance. A deposit initiator must also make arrangements for the pick-up and processing of empty containers and pay dealers and redemption centers for the deposits and a 3.5 cent handling fee on each empty beverage container. Also requires deposit initiators to report quarterly on deposit collected and redeemed and to remit 80% of the unredeemed deposits to Taxation and Finance.
Footnotes
[1] Source: New York Department of Environmental Conservation, E-mail Communication with Jennifer Kruman. (8/9/18)
[2] "2019 Beverage Market Data Analysis." Container Recycling Institute. 2022.
Last Updated on August 5 2022.