The Connecticut Supreme Court has overturned a 2010 trial court ruling on the state’s recycling laws that awarded $5.7 million to 19 beer and soda distributors.
In an opinion released Tuesday on an appeal by the commissioner of environmental protection, the court disagreed with an April 23, 2010 decision that the state’s retroactive taking of four months worth of unclaimed bottle deposits in late 2008 and early 2009 was unconstitutional.
Connecticut lawmakers amended the state’s bottle bill in 2008 to tighten rules on the deposits — requiring them to be held in separate, in-state bank accounts. The bottle bill, one of Connecticut’s first laws regarding product stewardship and recycling, aims to reduce the amount of cans that end up in landfills.
Beverage distributor plaintiffs had argued successfully three years ago that they had a vested property interest in the money because it allowed them to use the funds in the special accounts to pay operating expenses associated with refunding the deposits.
The higher court disagreed that the distributors had a property interest in the unclaimed deposits. Though the state has not enacted any provision allowing it to collect unclaimed bottle deposits, the opinion notes that legislators had referred to the unclaimed deposits as “escheats,” or property abandoned by unidentified consumers.
