Bill > S3147

Introduced Session

This bill, to be known as the "Beverage Container Deposit Act," would establish a container deposit and refund system in New Jersey to facilitate the return of used and empty beverage containers to manufacturers for reuse, recycling, or proper disposal. Commencing two years after the date of the bill's enactment, every filled beverage container sold or offered for sale in the State would need to: (1) be a returnable container; (2) have a refund value of $0.10 when empty; (3) be clearly identified by a stamp, label, or other mark securely affixed to the container, bearing the name of the State, and indicating the container's refund value; and (4) if composed primarily of metal, have no part that becomes detached when opened. Any manufacturer who manufactures for sale in this State, any distributor who sells, offers for sale, or gives to a dealer in the State, and any dealer who sells, offers for sale, or gives to a consumer in this State, a filled beverage container that fails to comply with these requirements will be subject to a civil penalty of $100 to $1,000, for each day of violation, as well as the payment of restitution in an amount equal to the loss resulting from the violation. Under the container deposit and refund system established in the bill, a distributor (including a manufacturer or other person) who sells a filled beverage container to a dealer in the State will be required to originate a $0.10 refundable container deposit surcharge on that container, which is to be paid by the dealer and collected and recorded by the distributor. A dealer who sells a filled beverage container to a consumer will then be required to charge the consumer the $0.10 deposit that was originated by the distributor on the container. The bill would not require a dealer to collect a deposit from a consumer who is purchasing the beverage for on-site consumption in the dealer's sale and consumption area; however, if a dealer elects to authorize on-site beverage consumption without payment of a deposit, the dealer will nonetheless be required to collect a deposit if the consumer fails to return the container upon leaving the sale and consumption area. A distributor or dealer who fails to originate or impose the $0.10 deposit on a beverage container, as required by the bill, will be subject to a civil penalty of $100 to $1,000, for each day of violation, as well as the payment of restitution in an amount equal to the loss resulting from the violation. The bill would require a dealer to accept for return, from any person, an empty returnable container of any kind, size, and brand that is sold or offered for sale by the dealer, and to pay the container's refund value, in cash, to the person returning the container, regardless of whether that person is the original customer who purchased the filled container or whether the filled container was originally sold by the dealer. A dealer may limit, to $25, the total dollar amount of container refunds that may be daily issued to a single person. A distributor would similarly be required to accept for return, from any dealer, an empty returnable container of any kind, size, and brand that is sold or offered for sale by the distributor, and to pay the dealer the full refund value of the container, in cash. The distributor would then be required to either return the redeemed empty container to the manufacturer or, if the distributor is the manufacturer, to retain possession of the redeemed container, for reuse, recycling, or proper disposal in accordance with all applicable laws and regulations. The bill would prohibit any person from paying, claiming, or receiving any container deposit, refund, processing payment, or handling fee for any of the following: (1) a beverage container that the person knows, or should know, was imported from out of State; (2) a previously redeemed beverage container; (3) a previously rejected beverage container; or (4) any other vessel, cup, non-beverage container, or other material that is ineligible for redemption pursuant to this act. The bill would further prohibit any person from fraudulently: (1) redeeming or attempting to redeem an out-of-state container, a previously redeemed container, a previously rejected container, or any other ineligible container or material; (2) returning a previously redeemed container to the marketplace for redemption purposes; (3) bringing an out-of-state container, a previously rejected container, or any other ineligible container or material to the marketplace for redemption purposes; or (4) receiving, storing, transporting, distributing, or otherwise facilitating or aiding in the redemption of any such ineligible container or material. Any person who violates these provisions would be subject to the payment of restitution in an amount equal to the loss resulting from the violation. In order to facilitate the return of beverage containers under the bill, the bill would require each dealer who sells filled returnable beverage containers for off-site consumption to provide, either on the premises where sales are made or within 100 yards thereof, a reverse vending machine or other convenient means by which empty returnable containers may be returned and a cash refund issued to the person who is returning them. The bill would additionally require a dealer to post written notice, in the area where returnable containers are redeemed, notifying consumers that they may be liable for the payment of restitution in association with any improper container returns made thereby. Any dealer who fails to comply with either of these requirements would be subject to a civil penalty of $50 per day of violation. Certain manufacturers of large quantities of beverages would also be required to use returnable containers that have a designated symbol, mark, or other distinguishing characteristic, approved by the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), which is sufficient to enable a reverse vending machine to determine whether the container is returnable and is eligible for a refund. A manufacturer who does not use designated containers when required by the Department of the Treasury would be subject to a civil penalty of up to $2,000. Under the bill's provisions, if a distributor, in a single year, is an under-redeemer of beverage containers, meaning that the distributor has collected more money in container deposits than the distributor has expended in container refunds, the distributor will be required to pay, to the Department of the Treasury, the value of the unclaimed deposits, less the value of any over-redemption credit authorized under the bill. An over-redemption credit may be issued, by the Department of the Treasury, to any distributor who, in a single year, expends more money in container refunds than the distributor collects through deposits, and this credit may be carried forward for the next three years to offset any payments owed by the distributor upon becoming an under-redeemer. However, if an over-redeemer is not planning to continue making container deposits in subsequent years, the Department of the Treasury may allow the over-redeemer, on a one-time basis, to carry the value of the credit back into prior years in order to realize its value. In order to reduce the costs owed by an under-redeemer and reduce the amounts expended by an over-redeemer, the bill would authorize an under-redeemer to purchase empty redeemed containers from another distributor who is an over-redeemer in the same year. The bill would require the DEP to authorize and provide for the establishment, licensure, and operation of beverage container redemption centers, throughout the State, for the bill's purposes. Each such redemption center would be authorized to engage in the bulk collection of redeemable containers, in accordance with various requirements established in the bill, through the use of either or both an account-based bulk processing program or a bag-drop program, as such programs are defined in the bill. Except as otherwise provided by the bill, each such redemption center would be required to remain open and available to accept redeemable containers on a daily basis, seven days a week, for at least 10 hours a day from Monday through Saturday, and for at least six hours a day on Sunday. The redemption centers established and operated, pursuant to the bill, are to supplement, but not supplant, the consumer return of redeemable containers to dealers under the bill. The bill would further require each distributor of beverages, unless otherwise speci?ed in a contract executed with a dealer, to offer to provide a collection service, for redeemable containers, to each dealer or other establishment that allows for the on-site consumption of beverages in the State. Such collection service is to provide for the regular collection of all redeemable containers stored by such dealers and other establishments, in accordance with the following collection schedule: (1) if the dealer or other establishment has an on-site consumption capacity of 50 or more persons at a time, the collection system is to provide for all redeemable containers stored thereby, at least once per week; and (2) if the dealer or other establishment has an on-site consumption capacity of fewer than 50 persons at a time, the collection system is to provide for all redeemable containers stored thereby to be collected, by the distributor, at least twice per month. A distributor operating a collection system, pursuant to the bill, would be required to: (1) provide all of equipment and accessories necessary to facilitate the collection of redeemable containers under the system; (2) take appropriate and necessary steps to ensure that redeemable beverage containers are emptied and sorted on site, if possible; (3) issue appropriate refunds, for all redeemable containers collected under the system, not more than seven consecutive business days after such containers are collected; and (4) if the distributor requires the use of a digital application to facilitate the issuance of requisite refunds, assign a unique identi?cation code to each participating dealer or other establishment and require each such dealer or other establishment to attach, to each container stored thereby, a label containing that identification code. The bill would establish four new funds for the moneys that will be obtained through the implementation of the bill's provisions: (1) the Beverage Container Deposit Fund; (2) the Beverage Container Deposit Enforcement Fund; (3) the Clean-Up and Redevelopment Trust Fund; and (4) the Community Pollution Prevention Grant Fund. Moneys that are paid by under-redeemers, pursuant to the bill, are to be deposited into the Beverage Container Deposit Fund. The first $1 million in the BCD Fund is to be annually disbursed to the Beverage Container Deposit Enforcement Fund for use by the State Police in enforcing, and investigating violations of, the bill's provisions. However, if the balance in the Enforcement Fund exceeds $3 million, disbursements to that fund will be suspended until the balance falls below $2 million. Of the amounts remaining in the Deposit Fund following the requisite disbursement to the Enforcement Fund, 75 percent is to be disbursed to the Clean-Up and Redevelopment Trust Fund, and 25 percent is to be apportioned to each dealer in the State, based on the number of empty returnable containers handled by each dealer. In addition to the moneys disbursed thereto from the Beverage Container Deposit Fund, the Clean-Up and Redevelopment Trust Fund would also be credited with all penalty and restitution amounts that are imposed and collected by a court for violations of the bill's provisions. For each of the three fiscal years next following the bill's effective date, the first $15 million annually deposited in the trust fund is to be disbursed, in equal amounts, to eight different clean-up and redevelopment funds currently existing in the State and identified in the bill. Of the moneys remaining in the trust fund in those first three fiscal years, and of the total sum of moneys deposited in the trust fund in the fourth and each subsequent fiscal year following the bill's effective date, 80 percent of such moneys are to be equally disbursed, on an annual basis, to the eight different clean-up and redevelopment funds identified in the bill, and 10 percent of such moneys are to be disbursed to the Community Pollution Prevention Grant Fund, newly established pursuant to the bill. Moneys in the Community Pollution Prevention Grant Fund are to be used, by the DEP, to provide grants to local governments, local health departments, regional planning agencies, and similar entities (in amounts of up to $100,000 per year for each recipient) to finance various programs and activities related to water pollution prevention and litter clean-up, as specified in the bill. Each grant recipient would be required to provide a financial match equaling 25 to 50 percent of the grant award. Finally, this bill would repeal section 5 of P.L.2007, c.311 (C.13:1E-96.6), which currently provides for the State's existing recycling tax to become inoperable if State or federal law requires a deposit on, or establishes a refund value, for a beverage container, as this bill would do. This repeal will ensure that the State's existing recycling tax continues to remain in effect, notwithstanding this bill's enactment.

Committee Categories

Raj Mukherji (D)*,  Andrew Zwicker (D)*,  Bob Smith (D), 

Senate Environment and Energy Hearing (14:00:00 5/13/2024 Committee Room 4, 1st Floor, State House Annex, Trenton, NJ) (on 05/13/2024)

Official Document