A renewed push for a bottle bill is underway but with a twist – the responsibility of managing the recycling program will rest on the shoulders of beverage producers and distributors.

Unlike previous attempts, this year’s bill, House Bill 1636, establishes a Producer Responsibility Organization (PRO) to oversee the program, with beverage producers and distributors as contributing members, financially supporting the redemption program through fees instead of burdening government agencies.

State Rep. Sherry Dutzy Rose, one of the sponsors of the bill, said that the conventional model of having the government set up and manage the system is not effective in New Hampshire, particularly during budget constraints.

“That’s not a good model,” Dutzy said. “So the producers will now be responsible for paying for the trash that their products produce and that is an advantage to the taxpayers.”

For consumers, recycling beverage containers is simpler under this proposed system. Just drop your beverage containers – either glass aluminum or plastic – at the nearest reverse vending machine. Once the system reads the barcode, the redemption amount is given back in the form of coupons for consumers to use.

“We want to set up a system where you can just incorporate it in your daily or weekly routine, very similar to what you do with recycling now,” Dutzy said.

Redemption rates are structured based on container size, offering 10 cents for containers of 24 fluid ounces or less and 15 cents for larger containers exceeding 24 fluid ounces. These costs would be integrated into the prices of the beverages.

It’s a system that rewards consumers for recycling, said Rep. Dutzy.

New Hampshire is the only state in New England without a bottle bill. Currently, 10 states across the country have implemented such bills.

This bill has pushback from many beverage manufacturers.

Bree Dietly, Principal of Breezeway Consultants and representative of the American Beverage Association and the New Hampshire Beverage Association said the bill is proposing a “redundant, unrealistic and bureaucratic system” for distributors and producers.

The legislation mandates the installation of these vending machines in retail and convenience stores exceeding 10,000 square feet. Transfer stations, if they choose, can function as redemption centers too.

Purchase, installation, maintenance, recyclable management, marketing, and compensating stores for machine operation all fall under the onus of the organization of beverage manufacturers and distributors.

This approach aims to promote producer responsibility in managing the life cycle of beverage containers.

“You can’t just simply say, well the producers are in charge so it’s a good bill,” Dietly said in opposition to the bill. “This is an extremely prescriptive bill putting the producers in charge of the system and then prescribing the size of the signs in the windows of the stores where they take back the bottles. It doesn’t leave a lot of flexibility for the producers and the retailers to work out a system that’s efficient for consumers.”