Rochester’s NBC affiliate, 10NBC, announced yesterday that NY State lawmakers have decided to put a 5 cent deposit on bottled water in this year's budget. Right now, deposits apply only to cans and bottles of carbonated drinks. Adding bottled water is expected to add $118 million to the State's coffers.
In November, Chicago became the first city in the U.S to add a deposit on bottled water. It applies to bottled water sold within city limits and is expected to raise $10.5 million dollars this year. Florida is debating two ways of helping to plug its $6.5 billion budget gap using bottled water as a source of revenue. Governor Charlie Crist wants to impose a 6 cent per-gallon fee on water drawn from municipal systems, which would bring in $59.8 million. But Dasani in Jacksonville is screaming ‘financial stress’, ‘shut down plant’ and ‘job loss’ so the per-gallon fee may not happen. What may take its place is a repeal of the sales tax exemption that bottled water currently enjoys, which costs the state an estimated $42.3 million per year.
If the NY State bill is passed, New Yorkers will finally get some encouragement to switch to tap water. I would prefer a 10 cent deposit to send a stronger message to consumers and leave a little over for water infrastructure, but 5 cents is a good start. The deposit will help to reduce the number of plastic bottles that end up in landfills and the State’s Environmental Protection Fund gets 80 percent of unclaimed deposits to shore up its reserves. Let’s hope our lawmakers can do the right thing for the environment and turn a deaf ear to Coca-Cola’s threats to remove its bottling plants from NY State if the deposit bill passes.
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