The New York State legislature and Gov. David Paterson have elected to extend the state’s Bottle Bill to include bottle water bottles.
The 5-cent deposit that is required on beer and soda cans will also apply to bottled water bottles.
According to published reports, the bill also will require that 80 percent of the unclaimed deposits go to the state’s environmental protection fund, which lawmakers accessed earlier in 2009 to help close the budget deficit.
A 2005 study by The Onondaga County Resource Recovery Agency found that only 16 percent of plastic water bottles were recovered for recycling, while 80 percent of plastic soda bottles were recovered.
By expanding the bottle bill, Gov. Paterson says he hopes to bring in more than $100 million in state revenue.