Lawmakers in Connecticut are identifying their environmental priorities for the upcoming legislative session, which kicks off Wednesday.
While the state budget and its projected $1.3 billion deficit will be legislators' main focus, speaking recently to the Connecticut League of Conservation Voters, Representative Jonathan Steinberg, a Democrat serving Westport, said lawmakers will be examining environmental policies, too -- including potential changes to the state bottle bill.
"Because there is the impending possibility that everybody who's in the recycling business will be out of it very shortly because they aren't making any money," Steinberg said.
Connecticut is one of 11 U.S. states charging customers a small fee, in the hopes of encouraging the recycling of soda, water, and beer bottles.
But Representative Mary Mushinsky, a Democrat from Wallingford, thinks the fees paid to redemption centers are decades old and too low and need to rise slightly to make the program work.
"The industry folks have talked to us that they are failing -- and unless we change the fee the whole bottle bill system will fall apart," she said.
Any possible price impacts to customers buying drinks at the store would still need to be worked out.
Other legislative priorities identified to the League of Conservation Voters include an expansion of shared solar, which is a way for customers to buy solar power, even if they don't have panels on their roof -- and continued work on the state water usage plan, which is expected to be voted on in January of 2018.
