277K Nips Sold In North Haven Since April: State

NORTH HAVEN, CT — As throughout the past two years, Connecticut’s wine and spirits industry is distributing funds generated from the state’s “nickel-per-nip” environmental stewardship program to all Connecticut cities and towns where nips are sold.

Under the program, each municipality receives 5 cents for each nip sold within its borders every six months.

The money from this eco fee is intended for locally driven environmental stewardship programs.

Upon the $2.36 million being sent to cities and towns at the end of October, the two-year-old program has now generated $8.9 million for Connecticut municipalities that sell nips, according to officials.

Under the state law, proposed by Three Tiers for Connecticut and passed in 2021, a nickel surcharge is placed on the sale of each nip container at the point of sale.

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.

Every April and October, each municipality receives 5 cents for each nip sold within its borders during the preceding six months.

From the April 1, 2023, to Sept. 30, 2023 time frame, 276,538 nips were sold in North Haven.

North Haven’s allocation for the current period is $13,826.90.

Overall, nip sales generated $52,295.30 for North Haven in the first two years of the program.

“In just two years, this groundbreaking program has generated $8.9 million in litter-reduction funding that goes directly to cities and towns that sell nips,” said Lawrence F. Cafero Jr., president and treasurer of Three Tiers for Connecticut and Executive Director of Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of Connecticut, Inc.

Cafero said studies show that most litter from nips “happens very close to where the containers are purchased. In just two years, this local solution has become a national model.”

“The beauty of this program is in its simplicity and direct-to-town approach, and we’re happy to see what they’re doing,” Cafero said. “Local governments know what they need best, and this program devotes the fees collected in each town stay in that town, with no hidden handling charges or ‘sweeps’ of money into the state budget.”