The state of New York’s Returnable Container Act, the Bottle Bill, was established in 1982 and last expanded in 2009. While as a circular economy policy it has increased recycling rates, the state environmental agency and other groups have called for modernization of the law against the backdrop of a solid waste disposal crisis caused by dwindling landfill capacity, increasing costs, and challenges in recycling and waste management.
New York’s ‘Bigger, Better Bottle Bill’ is an initiative to expand the state’s existing Bottle Bill, aiming to increase the deposit to 10 cents, expand the types of containers covered to include more non-carbonated beverages, and increase the handling fee for redemption centers. New York currently has a beverage container recycling rate of 66% that could improve to 91% under a modernised DRS.
Our study looks at savings to municipal governments as a result of an enhanced DRS that would reduce the amount of waste municipalities would have to dispose of. The report uses different demographic examples of municipalities, including:
- New York State
- New York City
- Clarkstown, New York (suburban town)
- Troy, New York (small urban town)
- Riverhead, New York (rural area)
For each locality, we produced a report that calculated estimated savings from reduced waste material collections. Costs were calculated by estimating savings associated with reducing the number of collection vehicles, tipping fees, and support staff needed for a municipal collection program.
We also calculated potential revenue losses for MRFs caused by shifting material away from curbside MRF streams into deposit return streams, and the rise in tipping fees that would be required to balance this loss.
The research found that MRFs in the New York State have a total estimated revenue of $1.474 billion. If they were to keep their tipping fees constant under the 90% DRS return rate scenario, they would see an estimated revenue loss of $57.43 million dollars (4%). To mitigate this, MRFs would need to raise tipping fees on average from $90 per ton to $128 per ton.
Meanwhile, the state of New York could see savings between $39.5 million and $108.6 million per year in municipal collection costs, while households could save between $5.5 and $15.2 per year.
This research highlights significant potential cost savings and other social and environmental benefits, such as:
- Diverting 5.5 billion beverage containers from disposal
- Reducing greenhouse gas emissions in New York State by 358 thousand metric tons
- Adding $962 billion in gross value added to the economy.
The findings could help lawmakers understand the benefits of a better Bottle Bill as they look ahead to what could be financially challenging times and create momentum behind similar circular economy model proposals that deal with other types of packaging.
The report for Reloop can be accessed here: https://www.nypirg.org/pubs/202504/Report_Expanded_Bottle_Bill_Impact_2025.pdf
