Middletown 'Nip' Sales Top 558K; City Gets $28K From Deposit Surcharge

Middletown CT

25 April, 2022

4:01 PM

Description

MIDDLETOWN, CT — A law the state passed last fall requires a 5-cent surcharge on every "nip" bottle sold in Connecticut — and now, municipalities, including Middletown, are cashing in on the money. Empty nip bottles are everywhere: They're "strewn along the streets, sidewalks, trails and floating in our waterways," said State Sen. Christine Cohen, who represents the Branford area. Cohen championed the law, which is designed to help towns clean up environmental messes. A nip is classified as a spirit or liquor beverage container of 50mL or less. The 5-cent surcharge is passed on to the retailer and then the consumer by alcohol wholesalers. And they, in turn, hand that money over to towns to mitigate the environmental, and aesthetic, havoc wreaked by the little bottles. The law requires that each town use the money for environmental measures intended to reduce litter from improperly discarded nips bottles and the generated solid waste. Suggestions include hiring a recycling coordinator; installing storm drain filters designed to block solid waste and beverage container debris; buying a mechanical street sweeper, vacuum or broom that removes litter; and the like. And this month, the payments to the towns are due. Patch requested reports from the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection that delineate the number of nips sold, the surcharge collected and how much each of the state's 169 cities and towns are due. According to the data, 558,728 nips were sold in Middletown from Oct. 1, 2021 through March 31, 2022. The sales generated $27,936 for the city. To sign up for Middletown breaking news alerts and more, click here. Once the city gets its check, it can use the money to "address an environmental concern," Cohen said. "Whether they choose to use the monies towards clean-ups, drain covers, street sweepers or another conservation-minded initiative, the towns, their residents and our environment will be the better for it," Cohen said. — Ellyn Santiago, Patch Staff, contributed to this report.