It was supposed to be a compromise between environmental and business interests. Rhode Island’s beverage sales industry representatives agreed to help work on a solution two years ago when a legislative study commission formed to study the best way to craft a deposit-refund program for recyclable bottles and cans.
But at least two of the commission’s 20 members, both of whom work in the industry, remained firmly opposed to two of the “three bottle bills” receiving an initial vetting before the Senate Committee on Environment and Agriculture on Wednesday.
Their displeasure was targeted toward a bill sponsored by Sen. Bridget Valverde, a North Kingstown Democrat, and another bill by Sen. Mark McKenney, a Warwick Democrat, calling for a 10-cent fee on individual beverage containers. Consumers could get their money back upon returning the containers to designated redemption sites run by a nonprofit contractor hired by beverage producers.
The point of a redemption program is twofold: to discourage littering and to reduce the waste accumulating in the state’s Central Landfill in Johnston. A report published last month by the commission notes roughly 1,000 tons of microplastic was detected by University of Rhode Island researchers within the sediment of Narragansett Bay — which ultimately end up being consumed by marine species that humans then eat.
Of the six New England states, only Rhode Island and New Hampshire do not have a bottle refund program.
But reaching a compromise with industry leaders was always going to be an uphill battle. Even before the final report was issued in April, five beverage industry members who sat on the commission issued a letter stating they supported none of the recommendations for a proposed bottle deposit program, citing concerns over cost, implementation, and balance issues in the region.
“The intention of this bill is definitely honorable,” Rhode Island Food Dealers Executive Director Scott Bromberg, who served on the commission, told lawmakers Wednesday. “But we beg the question: Is this the right time to propose additional fees to everyday, regular Rhode Islanders?”
He added that businesses would ultimately pass on the 10-cent fee to consumers — at a time when tariffs threaten to drive prices even higher.
“While 10 cents may not seem like a lot on one bottle, $2.40 for a case of $5 bottles of water is significant,” Bromberg said. “This can be recouped, but return is often unpredictable.”
Nicholas Fede Jr., executive director for the Rhode Island Liquor Operators Collaborative, also served on the commission, said the state should instead focus on updating existing curbside infrastructure to better sort out recyclable materials that may end up crushed in the landfill.
“People want to do the easiest thing possible, and that is curbside,” Fede told the committee. “The fact that we’re going to make people take their recyclables to a redemption center is a massive inconvenience.”
McKenney, commission co-chair, sees a bottle bill as an obligation to a cleaner future.
“We can kick the can down the road — it can be our children’s problem, it could be our grandchildren’s problem,” said McKenney, a Warwick Democrat. “But we do have to ask what kind of state we are leaving for them.”
Lack of consensus
Bottle bill supporters and opponents have tried to show the public is on their side. But the results of surveys on the subject favor whoever commissioned the poll.
A survey released Tuesday by a group calling itself Stop the Rhode Island Bottle Tax found that 60% of 600 respondents were opposed to the legislation. The group is backed by the American Beverage Association.
“Raising prices at a time when Rhode Island families are already struggling with inflation is not the way to improve recycling, especially when there are other models available,” Busra Toprak, owner of Baba’s Original New York System Wieners in Providence, in a statement released with the poll.
But 55% of respondents in a poll released March 7 by Save the Bay expressed support for a 10-cent deposit on all beverages in recyclable containers. The poll of 400 registered Rhode Island voters found that environmental concerns were a major driver in their push for a bottle bill.
Peter Trafton, co-vice president for policy at the Environment Council of Rhode Island, told the committee Wednesday he was particularly concerned about microplastics in Narragansett Bay.
“Over the next few years we will learn how much damage it is going to cause to our kids, our grandchildren, and everyone who eats the wonderful, tasty foods we get from the sea,” Trafton said.
Trafton highlighted passage of the bottle bills as one of the council’s top priorities for the 2025 legislative session.
The commission’s report also cited a 2023 coastal cleanup conducted by Save the Bay where volunteers picked up 114,914 pieces of trash, of which 25,276 pieces were disposable drink containers.
“What we are doing is not working,” Jed Thorp, Save the Bay’s director of advocacy, told the committee Wednesday. “We have to do better.”
The root of the waste problem, lawmakers and advocates say, is beverage retailers. Which is why McKenney and Valverde’s proposals call for the creation of an entity known as a producer responsibility organization, overseen by a state advisory panel, that would work with manufacturers to meet state recycling requirements.
Industry leaders rejected the notion that they should bear responsibility for litter in Rhode Island.
“The accusation that we are the problem and not part of the solution is disingenuous and insulting,” John Holahan, general manager of Coca Cola Beverages Northeast, told lawmakers.
Holahan called the state’s litter issues a “behavioral problem,” which he said should be addressed through recycling education programs. Such an idea is outlined in a third bill by Sen. Jake Bissaillon, a Providence Democrat. The committee held an initial hearing on Bissaillon’s bill on April 30.
The recycling education component is also included in McKenney’s bill. But McKenney said education only goes so far.
The commission had asked industry leaders for information on how effective education and anti-litter campaigns have been in upping a state’s recycling rates. But McKenney said the commission has yet to receive an answer.
“When you’re talking about programs that only nibble at the problem, they’re not solutions,” McKenney told lawmakers. “They’re not effective in terms of making a strong, actual impact.”
Supporters of the bottle bill, including McKenney, argue that adding a monetary incentive will encourage consumers to return containers for a refund. Scott Breen, vice president of sustainability for the Can Manufacturers Institute in Washington, D.C., pointed to Maine and Oregon, where consumers often receive store credit in exchange for recycling.
“People can actually get more than they pay in the deposit,” Breen said in an interview.
If a bottle deposit fee is considered a tax, a majority of Rhode Islanders would be opposed, Breen said.
Not every industry representative who testified Wednesday was opposed.
Liz Donohue, vice president of government affairs for Primo Brands, told lawmakers that incentivizing better recycling habits would help her clients meet their goal of making 50% of all of its bottles produced recyclable. Her company represents Poland Springs, PureLife, and Saratoga Water.
“We need a greater supply, and we need it to be domestic,” Donohue said.
Kurt Wells, director of regulatory affairs at the Aluminum Association in Washington D.C., said bottle bills across the country have been effective at collecting recyclables of consumers who don’t have access to curbside pickup.
“This is a particular advantage in terms of litter prevention and marine debris avoidance — obvious clear benefits here in the Ocean State,” Wells said.
Both McKenney’s and Valverde’s bills were held for further study by the committee, as is standard procedure for a bill’s introductory hearing. The companion trio of proposals introduced in the House in April have not yet been scheduled for a hearing across the rotunda.
Rep. Tina Spears, a Charlestown Democrat, introduced the House’s version of the bottle bill. Rep. David Bennet, a Warwick Democrat, is behind the legislation establishing a recycling education and enforcement program. Rep. Carol Hagan McEntee, a South Kingstown Democrat who co-chaired the commission, sponsored the chamber’s combination bill.
This story was originally published by the Rhode Island Current.
