The beverage container redemption rate in Connecticut climbed from 44 percent in calendar year (CY) 2023 to 65 percent in CY 2024 following the implementation of significant deposit return system (DRS, aka bottle bill) program improvements, according to data released by the Container Recycling Institute (CRI). However, eight of the nine other DRS states with available information showed changes ranging from a 1 percent increase to a 3 percent decrease, and overall, redemption rates have dropped significantly in the last decade.
CRI president Susan Collins pointed to the carefully crafted, phased approach to the DRS improvements in Connecticut’s Senate Bill 1037 (signed into law in 2021) as key to ensuring successful results, with upgrades including:
- Effective October 1, 2021 – Raising handling fees for retailers and redemption centers to cover increases in operating costs and help ensure the sites’ financial viability.
- Effective October 1, 2021 – Requiring chain stores that meet certain criteria to provide at least two reverse vending machines (RVMs) for consumers.
- Effective October 1, 2021 – Creating a $5 million grant program to establish new redemption centers in underserved areas.
- Effective January 1, 2023 – Adding non-carbonated beverages and malt-based hard seltzer to the DRS program.
- Effective January 1, 2024 – Increasing the deposit-refund amount for covered beverages from $.05 to $.10.
Per the state Department of Energy & Environmental Protection (DEEP), the 2024 beverage container redemption rate rose in each quarter, ending at 77 percent in Q4. In that quarter, more than 361 million containers were redeemed, compared to 168 million in Q1 2021. Also, since SB 1037 passed, the number of available redemption centers has doubled and RVMs have been added to 300 stores that previously didn’t have them – making container returns more convenient for consumers. ((Note: When fully enacted, the Connecticut law’s name changed to Public Act (PA) 21-58.))
Driving improvements in other deposit states
DRS programs provide well documented environmental and economic benefits and Collins said, are increasingly crucial to ensure a greater supply of clean, domestic, high quality material to meet recycled content laws and plastics reduction commitments from major brands.
These programs require upkeep. “If you buy a car and fail to maintain it over the years, it will eventually start to break down. The same goes for DRS programs,” Collins said. “Many of the U.S. state programs took effect in the 1970s and 1980s. With a few exceptions, they have not been maintained and improved enough since then to continue working as effectively as they should.”
She said the three main areas needed for DRS modernizations are higher container deposit amounts, additional convenient options for bottle and can returns and coverage of more beverage types.
Increasing deposits to a dime
According to Collins, increasing the container deposit amount from $.05 to $.10 is extremely important for improving redemption rates. Of the 10 U.S. deposit states with DRS programs, just three – Connecticut, Michigan and Oregon – provide a $.10 deposit on all covered containers.
In 2021, CRI projected that the jump in Connecticut’s DRS deposit-refund value from $.05 to $.10 along with other DRS program improvements, would result in a large increase in its redemption rate based on evidence from other states and countries. This proved true, as the Connecticut redemption rate rose by 21 percentage points in one year (CY 2023 to CY 2024).
Collins noted that large redemption rate increases in Oregon after it made several DRS program improvements, including upping the deposit amount from a nickel to a dime, also demonstrated the value of a higher deposit. When the $.10 deposit took effect in 2017, the redemption rate climbed from 64 percent in 2016 to 86 percent in 2019. Since then, the rate has not dropped below 80 percent except for one year during the COVID pandemic. The international DRS redemption rate average tops 80 percent and no other U.S. state meets that threshold.
“A nickel in 2025 is worth about a penny compared to the mid-1970s,” Collins said. “It is no longer enough of a financial incentive for consumers to continue returning empty bottles and cans. Other DRS states need to approve legislation that increases the deposit amount.”
Enhancing consumer convenience
To be successful, DRS programs also require convenient bottle and can return options, such as return-to-retail (with and without RVMs), redemption centers and bag drops. Collins said that the “building block” approach in Connecticut’s DRS modernization law – with the establishment of more robust container return infrastructure before implementation of other upgrades – can serve as a model for other states.
“The initial provisions implemented under the law resulted in the availability of 15 new redemption centers and the addition of RVMs to 300 stores,” she said. “This ensured greater capacity and increased consumer convenience before the state added more beverage types to its DRS program and raised the deposit amount from a nickel to a dime.”
Some other deposit states are taking steps to improve container return infrastructure. In California, approximately half of the state’s redemption centers closed from 2013 to 2022, which Collins said mainly stemmed from inadequate processing payments based on an outdated calculation formula. Processing payments are an important source of revenue for redemption centers and a calculation adjustment – which CRI had advocated over many years – finally received approval as part of a bill signed into law in 2023 and took effect in 2024.
According to new information from California’s Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle), processing payments increased $83 million from 2023 to 2024 (due to both the formula change and the addition of deposits on additional beverage types). Also, handling fees paid to redemption centers rose $8 million from 2023 to 2024. The state added 52 redemption centers during this time.
Collins said, “Although the total processing payments in 2024 only averaged seven-tenths of a cent per container recycled, the continued use of the new processing payment calculation formula represents a step toward contributing to the financial stability of redemption centers and helping prevent further closures.”
Covering more beverage types
DRS programs lose effectiveness when they do not cover a full range of beverage types, especially bottled water, now the most widely sold beverage in the U.S. According to CRI data, plastic bottled water sales increased nearly 28-fold from 1997 to 2023. Massachusetts and Michigan are two of the four DRS states that still do not include bottled water in their programs and rank last and third-to-last, respectively, among deposit states for percentage of beverage units sold and covered by deposits. Both states’ redemption rates have dropped by nearly 25 percentage points in the last decade.
On a positive note, an increase in DRS beverage coverage occurred in California in 2024, when the addition of deposits on wine, spirits and 100 percent of fruit and vegetable juices in larger sizes than previously included, took effect. According to CalRecycle, there were 1.5 billion more deposit beverage containers collected for recycling in 2024 compared to 2023.
Collins said, “Coverage of previously exempt beverage types in DRS programs leads to an increase in bottle and can returns. It’s a change that still needs to happen in several deposit states.”
She added it is important to remember that while enhanced and new beverage container DRS programs are needed, the rate of the weakest U.S. program (Massachusetts, with a 2024 redemption rate of 35 percent) is still 9 percentage points higher than the U.S. nominal recycling rate of 26 percent for containers not on deposit. No other deposit state with CY 2024 data available has a redemption rate below 60 percent.
Building Legislative Momentum
Collins said that in the first half of 2025, DRS legislation was introduced in six states, while eight current deposit states saw program expansion/modernization legislative activity. She added that this is a higher number than in several previous years.
“Importantly, some of this legislation progressed further than in the past,” she said. “In Texas, for example, a bill with bipartisan support reached the House floor calendar – a first for any container deposit legislation in the state – but time ran out before a full vote.”
Collins concluded, “Based on decades of data, we know that DRS programs are the ‘gold standard’ for increasing beverage container recycling rates. CRI will continue our original research, objective analysis and responsible advocacy to support the passage of legislation that establishes successful DRS programs and provides effective upgrades to current ones – a vital way to benefit industry, consumers and the environment.”
Published October 2025
