Connecticut lawmakers could move to ban the sale of miniature alcohol bottles known as “nips” in the coming session of the General Assembly, according to one veteran legislator.
Rep. Mary Mushinsky (D-Wallingford) said Wednesday that two bills were currently under consideration.
“One would be to just ban nips altogether, which would be the easiest [and] cleanest,” Mushinsky said. “Then another one would be to put them in under the bottle bill system where there's a refundable deposit, and then people will want to pick them up for the 10 cents.”
Several advocates spoke at Mushinsky’s press conference in support of a ban.
“We must protect the health of the [Long Island] Sound, we must protect the health of our wildlife, and we owe it to our neighbors in communities that have their public parks riddled with plastic and glass nip bottles all over the place to help their communities become a little cleaner,” said Alex Rodriguez, environmental justice specialist at Save the Sound. “Banning the sale of nips is a positive way for that to happen.”
Tom Metzner with the group CT Towns Nixing The Nip said municipalities in Massachusetts that had banned the sale of nips had enjoyed great benefits.
“Chelsea, Mass., saw a significant decrease in alcohol-related EMT calls when they banned the sale of nips. Falmouth, Mass., saw a huge decrease in plastic litter when they banned the sale of nips,” Metzner said. “There’s only positive outcomes.”
Alcohol lobby groups have opposed similar proposals in the past.
“To allow any municipality the authority to ban a specific product by a simple majority of its legislative body can lead to chaos,” Lawrence Cafero Jr., executive director of the Wine and Spirits Wholesalers of Connecticut, testified in 2024 regarding a bill that would allow towns to ban nip sales.
Mushinsky said the matter is a pressing one.
“We have an alcohol problem, where they are easy to hide and consume and drive on the road and throw them out the window,” Mushinsky said. “We have a community degradation problem, where the large number of them are not picked up because they do not have a refundable deposit, and they are laying on the roads untouched. And we have a water pollution problem, as they get down the rivers to Long Island Sound.”
The Connecticut General Assembly convenes for its 2026 legislative session on Wednesday, Feb. 4.
