Connecticut’s beverage container redemption rate jumped to 92% in 2025, the highest among U.S. states with bottle-deposit programs, according to new data from the Container Recycling Institute.
The 92% rate was up 27 percentage points from 2024 and more than double its 44% rate in 2023, when Connecticut began phasing in changes to its bottle-deposit law. The state redeemed nearly 1.8 billion containers last year, more than 925 million above 2023 levels, while container sales remained essentially flat.
The Culver City, California-based nonprofit, which tracks bottle-deposit programs nationally, said Connecticut was the only one of nine states with available data to record a significant increase in 2025. Maine’s redemption rate fell five points to 69%.
Oregon had the next-highest rate at 88%, followed by Michigan at 69%, New York and Vermont at 68%, and California at 59%. Massachusetts had the lowest reported rate at 33%.
Connecticut’s gains followed a phased expansion of the state’s bottle-deposit program under legislation signed in 2021. The changes increased handling fees for retailers and redemption centers, required qualifying chain stores to install at least two reverse vending machines, expanded deposits to noncarbonated beverages and malt-based hard seltzers in 2023 and doubled the deposit to 10 cents on Jan. 1, 2024.
But the Container Recycling Institute cautioned that Connecticut’s 92% rate may be overstated.
The organization said the state’s system is dealing with claims of over-redemption by some distributors and that it estimates actual beverage sales in Connecticut exceed the volumes reported by distributors.
CRI also cited reports of empty containers being brought into Connecticut from neighboring states to collect the higher 10-cent refund. New York’s deposit is 5 cents, and the state’s redeemed-container total fell by about 2 million between 2023 and 2025.
The legislature in May passed Senate Bill 457, which prohibits collecting or paying a refund on a container that was not purchased in Connecticut.
CRI said in written testimony that the law raises practical and legal concerns and could be difficult to enforce within modern retail supply chains.
