New York Association of Convenience Stores

130 Washington Avenue, Suite 300, Albany NY 12210

TELEPHONE: (800) 33-NYACS or (518) 432-1400 FAX: (518) 432-7400

MEMORANDUM IN OPPOSITION

A.2517b by Assemblyman DiNapoli

AN ACT to amend the environmental conservation law, the economic development law and the state finance law, in relation to returnable beverage containers; and to repeal sections 27-1005, 27-1007 and subdivision 2 of section 27-1011of the environmental conservation law relating thereto

The newest amendments to this legislation reveal the true objective of bottle bill expansion advocates – to shove mounds of additional unrinsed, bug-infested containers down the throats of mom-and-pop stores who have nowhere to store them without compromising the sanitation standards strictly enforced by the State of New York.

§ Here we have an 11^th-hour “New York Bottle Bill Bill of Rights,” callously mandating that retailers plaster across their beverage cooler doors a sign proclaiming that there is absolutely no requirement that consumers wash their containers before returning them to the store for deposit redemption. “Your dirty, sticky, yucky bottles and cans welcome anytime!” the poster might as well say.

§ Here we have a grandiose but unfunded program of grants and state aid for bottle redemption equipment and facilities, cynically crafted to create the illusion that redemption centers will sprout overnight like beanstalks to relieve supermarkets and convenience stores of the avalanche of returnables touched off by the new law.

§ Here we have a call for a new bureaucracy to produce publications advising New Yorkers, “Remember what we’ve been telling you for the past 10 years about the importance of putting your glass, plastic and metal bottles and cans in the curbside recycling bin or taking them to the local transfer station? Forget that. Now you have to schlep them all back to the store where you got them.”

Regrettably, this purportedly better version of the “Bigger, Better Bottle Bill” is even worse than the original.

The New York Association of Convenience Stores represents the interests of 6,000 neighborhood mini-marts and convenience stores, many of them independent, family-run enterprises that carry beer and soft drinks, which are subject to the existing nickel deposit, and iced tea, sports drinks, bottled water, and other non-carbonated beverages, which are currently exempt but would require a deposit under this bill.

As business owners, parents and citizens, we share the commitment of New York State and its communities to recycling. But as the folks who get stuck with the labor costs, space requirements, and mess of physically handling and storing deposit bottles and cans, we have a different perspective than the sponsors of A.2517b.

Continued è

Unfunded Mandate

Reverse vending machines are impractical in smaller stores with limited space and volume. In our stores, real, live employees handle returnables, and it costs money. Under the current law, the store receives a handling fee of 2¢ per redeemed can, a fraction of the actual handling cost. Increasing the fee to 3½¢, as proposed by A.2517b, would still be woefully insufficient to cover the actual costs. And increasing by one-third or more the quantity of returnable containers shops would have to handle, sort and store would make it even more of a losing proposition.

Heightened Sanitation Risk

The second issue is the potential sanitation hazard. Many smaller stores today rely on food service as a major product category, under license from the state Department of Agriculture and Markets. When you leave empty soda or juice cans sitting around your house in mid-August, what do they attract? Now imagine if you left three or four 32-gallon bags full of empty Gatorade, iced tea and juice bottles sitting around in a hallway. Expand the bottle bill, and that's what you're likely to find in the tiny back room of smaller stores, just steps away from the food counter. The last thing anyone needs in a store that sells sandwiches, pizza or salads is an extra attraction for rodents, insects, and germs in the back room, especially during the summer.

Welcome, Neighbors

A third issue has to do with importation of containers from neighboring states that do not currently require deposits on non-carbonated beverages. Unquestionably, passage of A.2517b would unleash a flood of bottles and cans across state borders into New York for redemption, placing additional handling and storage burdens on retailers.

Selective Application

In some parts of New York, our members operate down the road, or right across the street, from a competing store operated by a Native American tribe. More often than not, when you buy a soft drink at a tribal store, you are not charged the nickel deposit, because tribes claim immunity from state laws. If 5 cents is sufficient to deter people from littering, it's also enough to influence their choice of where to buy. When they choose to buy outside the reach of the bottle bill, not only does it cost us business, but the environmental policy goal is thwarted. Expanding it compounds the double standard.

Summary

For smaller stores with limited space and limited staff, redemption and storage of bottles and cans is already a nuisance. Expanding the law to non-carbonated beverages would make it a logistical and sanitation nightmare. If there is inadequate redemption center capacity to relieve retailers of the existing burdens of the bottle bill, what reason is there to expect there will be enough to process the increased volume when the expanded law takes effect? Until these ramifications are fully examined and addressed, NYACS remains opposed to expansion and urge the Assembly to reject A.2517b as unworkable.

James S. Calvin

President, NYACS

June 13, 2005