No CT City Consumed More Nips Than New Haven, 2.3M Since Oct. 2022

NEW HAVEN, CT — From Oct. 1, 2022 t March 31, 2023, more than 2.3 million nips were sold in New Haven.

Yes, 2,301,461.

By way of example, Bridgeport sold around 1.6 million, around the same as Hartford. No community across the state though beats New Haven.

Eighteen months ago, the state's “nickel-per-nip” environmental stewardship program began. Since, it has generated $6.6 million for Connecticut cities and towns.

A nickel surcharge is placed on the sale of each 50 ml “nip” container at the point of sale. The 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.

Every April and October, each municipality receives five cents for each nip sold within its borders during the preceding six months. Last week, checks amounting to $2.4 million began to be sent to cities and towns representing nip sales from Oct. 1, 2022 to March 31, 2023.

New Haven's cut is $115,000.

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.

There are more than 70 alcohol wholesalers in the state. In one case, a few have banded together to make one payment to each town.

In New Haven, from Oct. 1, 2021 through March 31, 2022, 1,573,810 nips bottles were sold. Adding up the nickels collected on each, the city got around $79,000 to help clean them up.

“This $6 million program is making a big difference, and is performing beyond our expectations,” said Lawrence F. Cafero, Jr., President and Treasurer of Three Tiers for Connecticut and Executive Director of Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of Connecticut, Inc. “This is our strongest six-month period yet, and we just delivered $2.4 million in eco fees into the hands of our cities and towns, many of which are using those dollars to keep their roadsides, waterways and public spaces litter-free.”

Local litter prevention, national model

“Studies show that most litter from nips happens very close to where the containers are purchased,” Cafero explained. “This is why when legislators came to us looking for a solution, we built an eco-fee program to keep it local—because we make sure that the fees collected in each town stay in that town, with no hidden handling charges or ‘sweeps’ of money into the general fund like other programs.

“In just 18 months, this local solution has become a national model.”

Cafero said many municipalities have been using the funding for a number of litter-reduction efforts. Some towns have used the funding to support recycling coordinator positions, while others have partnered with local non-profit organizations on litter cleanups.

Proposed by Three Tiers for Connecticut and passed by the General Assembly in 2021, the program is designed to help cities and towns provide for the collection and proper disposal of 50 ml “nip” bottles. Three Tiers for Connecticut is a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization representing all of the major wine and spirits wholesalers in Connecticut, as well as suppliers and retailers—thereby being representative of all three tiers of the alcohol beverage industry.