11/12/2024
The state has not given an increase to redemption centers since 2009, when the water bottles were added. In 2009, the minimum wage was $7.25 an hour!! Our payroll, taxes, utilities, rents, etc., have doubled or tripled since then.
Only about 20% of cans and bottles ever get returned, so the state is sitting on a slush fund containing the nickels from the other 80%…millions of dollars a year. They are trying to take that money for other things, and it’s not in their best interest to give us more money.
Pepsi had a huge, costly campaign this year about how another nickel would make them double their prices. NOT TRUE…Nestle tried this tactic in 2009, when they added the water. Didn’t happen.
There has been a Bill in Albany, held up in committee for 3 years, that would give us another penny and a half handling fee per can. It has not moved…Rachel May and others tried to push through an emergency bill this year, but it didn’t happen. But the state legislators pushed right through a bill to give themselves another 29% increase, and Kathy Hochul gave her husbands Buffalo Bills org. billions for their new stadium. They just gave Pepsi a boatload of money to improve and enlarge their bottle center in Cicero!!!
If you’ve traveled much, you see the garbage in other states that goes unchecked. Recycling does help our environment and results in less going into the landfills, and New York State officials spend a LOT of time talking about their environmental plans, but they have failed to act on this matter. 50 returns closed last year. They are closing more every day, and grocery stores do not want to handle these returnables, and we can no longer employ people because there isn’t enough to pay them, so people are losing their jobs.
If you go to your bottle return and it’s closed for the day, it’s because they don’t have any help, they can’t pay their help, or they are out of cash and can’t pay out in the cans. Contact your legislature at every level and tell them you want your nickels back!!! They are hoping that you’ll give up and throw them away, so they can keep your money. Tell them to pass the bigger, better bottle bill…that’s its nickname, as we’ve been fighting this hard for two years. Save your local redemption center!! Love from Sheds Bottle and Can.
