New Law Concerns Handling Of Bottle Deposit Funds

HARTFORD — The Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has established a system to help beverage distributors comply with a new state law requiring them to account for funds they collect and pay out for deposits on containers covered by the state’s “Bottle Bill.”

To assist beverage distributors in meeting the requirements of Public Act 08-01 of the November 24 special session of the General Assembly, DEP has posted a fact sheet on the home page of its website at www.ct.gov/dep (under the Current Topics heading). This posting includes a form that allows a beverage distributor to inform DEP that its operations are covered by the new law and that it will take steps to comply.

While the legislature did not enact legislation in the special session to have unclaimed bottle deposit funds go to the state, a law did pass that takes effect on January 5 that contains several requirements regarding deposits on bottles, including:

*Deposit money paid to distributors by retailers must be placed in bank accounts established for this specific purpose.

*Funds can be taken from these accounts only to cover the costs of deposits paid back to consumers for redeemed bottles.

*Beverage distributors must file periodic reports accounting for the movement of money into and out of these accounts. DEP will be developing a format for these reports and make it available to beverage distributors. The first accounting reports, which will cover the period of December 1, 2008, to February 28, 2009, are due to DEP on March 15, 2009.

DEP Commissioner Gina McCarthy said, “DEP has taken steps under the new law to help beverage distributors meet their obligations. The legislation was designed to provide reliable data about the amount of deposit funds left in the system due to the fact that not all bottles are redeemed for deposits. The accounting system DEP is developing should help accomplish this goal.”