City Seeks To Nix Nip Litter

The city is looking to curb the number of nip bottles littering sidewalks, public parks, and storm drains by pushing for a statewide bottle deposit for the popular alcohol miniatures. It should not expect to find much support among city liquor store owners.

The Harp administration has asked the legislature to pass a bill that would put a 15-cent bottle deposit on nip alcohol bottles similar to the five-cent bottle deposit that has existed in the state for decades for bottles of soda, water, or beer.

New Haven State Reps. Roland Lemar and Juan Candelaria have filed a bill that would impose a five-cent bottle deposit, more in line with the existing bottle deposit. The bill has been assigned to the legislature’s Joint Committee on Environment. Mike Harris, legislative liaison for the city, said that the idea for a bottle deposit on nips is borrowed from Maine, which recently passed such legislation.

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy also has proposed a sweeping bill that would ensure at least a five-cent bottle deposit on every beverage container containing a carbonated or non-carbonated drink, including beverages like fruit juice that are not currently covered under the current bottle deposit law. Malloy’s bill also would raise the bottle deposit on beverage containers that hold alcohol to 25 cents.

Mayor Toni Harp said in an interview that the law will help deal with a litter problem in commercial areas.

Mike Patel, who has owned the Liquor World on Whalley Avenue for 20 years, was busy this past Wednesday as customers stopped by to stock up ahead of the snowstorm. He said he’d heard of the governor’s proposal. He hadn’t heard that the city was looking to impose a 15-cent bottle deposit specifically on nips.

Patel said called all the proposals bad for business.

“Recycling is fine, it’s good,” he said. ​“But my customers don’t want to pay more. They’re fighting for every nickel and dime they get.”

Patel said when the cost of an item goes up by even a few cents, customers move on to something cheaper. Liquor World sells an assortment of nips that range in price from 99 cents to $2.98.

He also noted that he has nowhere to store the returned bottles, which he said would attract bugs and vermin to the store.

Beverage Boss owner Ron Patel, who is not related to Mike Patel, offered similar thoughts. His Whalley Avenue store provides a small room at the back with machines for bottle returns. He said most stores don’t have the kind of space he does.

The system for having the bottles taken away isn’t great, he said. The company that comes to pick up the bottles, Envipco, is supposed to come once a week but doesn’t always.

“We pay an extra handling fee for that service,” Ron Patel said. ​“It’s a dirty business, and it attracts rodents. We have to have pest control come in twice a week to help maintain it.”

Ron’s family has owned the business for 39 years, 20 of which it has been at its current location at 226 Whalley Ave., and they’ve seen a lot of legislation come and go over the years.

“They do this every year, putting up 10 bills with the hopes of getting two passed,” he said.

The 2018 Agenda

Bill #	Status	Summary	Sponsors
HB 5001	In Committee Died on the Floor	To impose a fee on transactions involving virtual currency.	Pat Dillon
HB 5031 SB 4	In Committee Committee Approved Sent to the Floor Passed Gov. Signed	To allow students to have equal access to institutional financial aid.	Higher Education and Employment Advancement Committee
HB 5082	In Committee Committee Approved Died on the Floor	To provide state funds to assist hurricane victims from Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands who are living in Connecticut.	Juan Candelaria
HB 5126	In Committee Died on the Floor	To increase funding to boards of education and family resource centers that provide assistance to students and families from Puerto Rico.	Juan Candelaria
HB 5112	In Committee Sent to the Floor Died on the Floor	To permit the retail sale of marijuana and tax such sale to raise revenue for the General Fund and to fund substance abuse treatment, prevention, education and awareness programs.	Juan R. Candelaria, Angel Arce, Josh Elliott, Steven J. Stafstrom, Jeff Currey, Susan M. Johnson, Chris Soto, Patricia A. Dillon, Roland J. Lemar, James M. Albis, Christopher Rosario, Kim Rose, Robyn A. Porter, Edwin Vargas, Matthew Lesser, Gregory Haddad, Joshua Malik Hall, Ezequiel Santiago, Diana S. Urban, Toni E. Walker, Robert Sanchez, Alphonse Paolillo
SB 1	In Committee Died on the Floor	To expand the sick leave program to provide earned family and medical leave to certain individuals employed in this state.	Martin M. Looney, Bob Duff, Timothy D. Larson, Steve Cassano, Beth Bye, Terry B. Gerratana, Gary A. Winfield, Ted Kennedy, Catherine A. Osten, Marilyn V. Moore, Edwin A. Gomes, Mae Flexer
SB 62	In Committee Died on the Floor	To provide tuition-free community college for Connecticut residents.	Martin M. Looney
HB 5182	In Committee Committee Approved Sent to the Floor Died on the Floor	To require building officials in certain municipalities to establish and assess a fee for the commencement of certain work without a necessary permit.	Planning and Development Committee
HB 5210	In Committee Committee Approved Sent to the Floor Passed	To (1) mandate insurance coverage of essential health benefits, (2) expand mandated health benefits for women, children and adolescents, and (3) expand mandated contraception benefits.	Insurance and Real Estate Committee
HB 5084	In Committee Died on the Floor	To encourage the recycling of nip bottles that otherwise frequently litter urban areas.	Roland J. Lemar and Juan R. Candelaria
HB 5350 HB 5537	In Committee Committee Denied Sent to the Floor Died on the Floor	To create a pilot program for shared solar facilities at municipal airports. The bill also would delete the provision that dictates the length of Tweed Airport’s runway.	Energy and Technology Committee
HB 5475	In Committee Committee Approved Sent to the Floor Passed	To amend statutory provisions concerning a police officer’s viewing of a recording from body-worn recording equipment under certain circumstances.	Judiciary Committee
HB 5515	In Committee Committee Approved Sent to the Floor Passed	To permit a zoning commission to regulate the brightness and illumination of advertising signs and billboards.	Judiciary Committee
HB 5540	In Committee Committee Approved Sent to the Floor Died on the Floor	To ban guns without serial numbers and regulate those which are sold in a form requiring the purchaser to finish assembly or that are homemade and to permit local authorities to interview immediate family members as part of a determination of an applicant’s suitability.	Judiciary Committee
HB 5542	In Committee Committee Approved Sent to the Floor Passed	To ban the sale or transfer, possession, manufacturing or use of bump stocks or other accessories to increase the rate of fire of a firearm.	Judiciary Committee