Nickel Deposits on Water Bottles Takes Effect Saturday ALBANY, NEW YORK (WXXI) - The state's newest version of the bottle deposit law takes effect Saturday, and the purchase of bottled water will require a five cent deposit, just like beer and soda bottles.

After months of legal wrangling, the law extending nickel deposits to bottled water bought in New York takes effect October 31, though grocery and convenience stores will have another week, until November 8th, to fully comply.

Grocery stores have already begun gearing up. Michael Rosen, with the Food Industry Alliance, a trade group representing supermarket chains and independent food stores, says stores are scrambling to reset all of the computers.

"In every one of New York's 21,000 food stores, retailers must first reprogram their front end systems, their cash registers" said Rosen, who said vending companies will also have to send technicians to all of the state's water vending machines in a hurry to make the changes.

Laura Haight, with the New York Public Interest Research Group, calls the new law a "real environmental positive for New York". She says more water bottles, which are the fastest growing category of bottled beverage, will now be recycled.

"We're going to be getting cleaner communities, fewer bottles polluting our beaches and parks and our roadsides," said Haight. "And a lot more recycling, with less of a burden on our municipal systems."

Haight believes that in this economy, people will return the bottles, rather than throw them out with their curbside recycling, increasing the chances that the bottle will actually be reused for another purpose in the future. She says currently, 70% to 80% of beer and soda containers, which have had a five cent deposit for decades, are redeemed and eventually recycled. Before the new deposit was required on water bottles, only 20% of the bottles were actually recycled.

Rosen, with the grocers association, says there will be a price to pay for the law, literally. He predicts that in addition to the $1.20 a case redeemable deposit fee, the cost of bottled water will go up to cover the additional expense of handling the returned containers.

But he says, in the short run, bottled water will likely be a bargain. Rosen says he expects stores will be eager to get rid of products they can no longer sell as of Saturday, so there's likely to be sales on bottled water.

"If you drink bottled water, these next two weeks would be a good time to take advantage of sales," said Rosen.

The expanded bottle law was to originally include sugared teas and sports drinks, and possibly wine bottles. Rosen, with the grocers association, says stores would be against any further expansion, because they worry that the sugar residue in the returned containers will attract pests. Haight, with NYPIRG, says supporters of the bottle law will work to try to get the remaining beverages included in the future, but for now want to ensure that the new bottled water deposit law is a success.
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