Rep. Turner Leads Effort to Raise Handling Fee

Press Release from the office of Rep. Cleon Turner - 6/27/2012 

State House, Boston- Representative Cleon H. Turner (D-Dennis) authored a letter co-signed by 21 members of the General Court to Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary, Richard Sullivan, asking him to increase the handling fee for the remaining redemption centers across the Commonwealth.

The bi-partisan group of Representatives and Senators said that because of the lack of an increase in recent years, redemption centers are going out of business at a rapid pace. An increase in the handling fee can either be done by legislation, or, as it has been done in the past, as an executive decision by the Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs. This increase does not come out of, or add to, the $.05 deposit currently paid by consumers. Rather, the increase would be paid by the distributors.

The current handling fee in Massachusetts is 2.25 cents, which is low, compared to nearby states. In Maine, distributors are required to pay at least 4 cents per bottle, and distributors in New York and Vermont both pay at least 3.5 cents per bottle. According to a list from the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, there are currently 55 redemption centers serving the 351 towns in the Commonwealth.

“The critical reason for this request is that redemption centers have not had an increase in the handling fee since 1990,” said Turner. “If a significant number of those centers go out of business before the bottle bill passes in the future, there will be insufficient services available to handle the increase in the number of redeemable bottles.”

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For further information, please contact Elysse Magnotto in Representative Turner’s office at Elysse.magnotto@mahouse.gov or 617-722-2090.