Submitted by Haddam Sustainability Committee
(December 6, 2023) — When the new year dawns on January 1, 2024, it will be the start of a new dime deposit law on bottles, cans, and other beverage containers. According to the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, these containers are eligible for the new ten-cent deposit:
Carbonated beverages such as beer or other malt beverages, hard seltzer, hard cider and mineral waters, soda water and similar carbonated soft drinks.
Non-carbonated beverages such as any water (including flavored water), plant or nutritionally enhanced water, juice, juice drinks, tea, coffee, kombucha, plant-infused drink, sports or energy drink and any beverage that is identified as such through the use of letters, words or symbols on such beverage’s product label.
Items NOT covered by the deposit law are: Wine, Liquor, Milk/Dairy, Plant-Based Milks, Meal Replacement Drinks, , Paper, Pouches, Miniatures, Large Containers. Though the items on this list cannot be redeemed, many of them can still be recycled.
The new law means that you’ll be charged ten cents per container when you purchase the beverages listed as eligible, but you get it back when you redeem the container. Like the proponents of the new law, the Haddam Sustainability Committee hopes that the increased deposit will lead to less litter on our roads and more recycling of plastics, glass and aluminum.
Along with that, though, here’s yet another plea to our Little Leaguers, our Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts and others who are in need of fundraising ideas. There is a lot of money to be made at our town parks and ballfields this summer. The barrels there are filled to overflowing with beverage containers that are about to get a lot more valuable.
Unfortunately, visitors to our parks don’t always use the barrels properly, and recyclables and redeemables often end up in the same barrel along with the regular trash. If some enterprising Scouts or Little Leaguers could salvage all those carelessly tossed-out containers, they might end up bringing in hundreds of dollars over the summer. We’ll provide the gloves and bags!
Contact the committee at haddamsustainabilitycommittee@gmail.com.
Please do your part to improve recycling in our town. The new ten-cent deposit law will be in effect soon, so please reduce, redeem and recycle.
