Fabius Bottle & Can

06/12/2025

TOMORROW IS THE LAST DAY TO GET OUR BOTTLE BILL PASSED TO GET OUR FIRST INCREASE SINCE 2009, AND THEN THEY TAKE A LOT OF TIME OFF!!! COULD YOU EXIST RIGHT NOW WITH NO PAY INCREASE FOR 16 YEARS? PLEASE TAKE A MOMENT AND MAKE THESE CALLS TO SAVE THE BOTTLE RETURNS IN NY!!

Call Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart Cousins: 518-455-2585
Bigger bottle bill or S8520a to provide relief to redemption centers and keep consumer access available.
📞 Call Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie: 518-455-3791
Bigger bottle bill or A6267 to provide relief to redemption centers and keep consumer access available.
Tell them that no action = consumer theft at this point. By not providing redemption centers with fair pay to stay open, they are cutting off consumer’s access to THEIR deposit money. Money that the state is stealing from their constituents. And costing taxpayer dollars at our landfills.

Send a message to learn more

01/04/2025

Today the cost of payroll for New York’s small businesses increased for the 13th time since 2009.

Redemption Centers haven’t received a single raise in that same time. These vital small businesses don’t have the power to raise prices on products or services to keep up with rising costs. New York legislators imposing increased expenses on these businesses must also provide them with fair pay to keep up with these costs.

Albany representatives continue to fail this industry, causing nearly 25% of redemption centers to close in just two years, due to no longer being able to cover the costs of doing business in New York.

Save small businesses and jobs by calling on Governor Kathy Hochul, Andrea Stewart-Cousins, Assembly Member Carl E Heastie and your district assembly member and senator to take action NOW!
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11/04/2024

Due to the fact that we are operating on 2009 income and our costs/expenses have double and tripled, there are no employees. I am temporarily closed to the public and not allowing drop-offs without an appointment. I must keep up with my commercial pickups and regular customers. I won't take on more than I can handle while also running the grocery store. Thanks for understanding....you can help by calling Governor Hochul and complaining about them sitting on the bottle bill, for 7 years now, that would give us a much needed raise!!

09/28/2024

Our Bottle Bill is held up in Committee for over 3 years, and the bottler they're referring to is PEPSI!!! They spent millions on campaigns to avoid handling fees, and then the State gave them millions to enlarge their bottling plant. But to add insult to injury, the State voted to give themselves another 29% increase this year!!

09/05/2024

As Americans spend the weekend celebrating victories, a fight that began right here in New York, our fight continues.

We have learned of 4 additional redemption center closures in the last few weeks. The cause? Severely suppressed pay at the hands of our very own state government.

The Labor Day movement addressed the grievances of poor working conditions, low pay, long hours, and lack of bargaining rights for workers or union leaders.

Today, owners of redemption centers are suffering in all four of those areas.

POOR WORKING CONDITIONS
-Being forced to work alone or take on additional jobs to try to cover increasing expenses on 15 year old pay.
-Handling hazardous material including broken glass, shards of metal, and biological material including all of the bodily fluids.
-Being forced to perform free labor due to the massive increase in nondeposit containers having to be handled without a handling fee.

LOW PAY
-NYS hasn’t increased the handling fee for redemption centers since 2009.
-Costs of minimum wage and related insurance has increased 12 times since 2009. Each increase cuts into a redemption center owner’s profit margin because they are bound by state law. They cannot raise prices to accommodate cost increases like other industries can. Each cost increase cuts into that owner’s finances directly.

LONG HOURS
-Many redemption centers have had no choice but to lose some or all of their staff to try and save on expenses. This is causing them to do more manual labor either short staffed or entirely alone.
-Distributors require that redemption centers “surgical sort” the containers by distributor, size and material. With dozens of new beverages entering the market every year, this has become very labor intensive and time consuming. One owner recently told us she had to sleep in her redemption center so she could pull an “all nighter” to catch up on the sorting. She is a mother of five and cannot afford to hire help under today’s circumstances. These situations should not exist.

LACK OF BARGAINING RIGHTS
-Because redemption centers are paid a handling fee, rather than a wage, owners have no rights in the eyes of the law. They cannot file a report for suppressed pay because it is state law that sets their pay rate.
-Because it is owners of these small businesses being forced to perform additional or free labor, they can not file a complaint like an employee could.
-In order to accomplish change, redemption centers must fight through the complicated and stonewalling system that is the legislature in Albany. All the data and facts presented mean nothing when a bill can, and has, been stopped by one representative. Despite 7 years of an increased handling fee bill being presented to the legislature, 0 have been allowed to the floor for a vote.
-There are no agencies to turn to in this industry. Even when suffering payment issues in 2023, there was not one government agency willing to help redemption centers get paid for their labor and product.

While many Americans celebrate the victories in the workforce, redemption centers unfortunately continue their fight for those same rights. Please, join us in calling on Governor Kathy Hochul to address these concerns by holding an emergency special session NOW.

09/05/2024

Bills addressing the suppressed pay to redemption centers date back to 2017. This fight has been at least 8 years long now.

If this law were passed, allowing redemption center compensation to keep pace with their expense increases, they would be receiving a 7.5¢ handling fee instead of just 3.5¢. Hundreds of businesses and thousands of jobs would have been saved.

This we ask New Yorkers to celebrate their victories today, but help us fight our continued battle tomorrow. The Labor Day movement wasn’t just about an extra day off to celebrate workers. It was about fair pay, proper working conditions, appropriate work hours and bargaining rights.

Redemption center owners in New York deserve the same rights as every other working New Yorker. Please, call on Governor Kathy Hochul this week and implore her to call an emergency special session to finally address the suppressed handling fee. Legislators can, and will, pass bills A9044/S8520 if given the opportunity.

2017 Bill Language Excerpt:

(B) EXCEPT AS OTHERWISE PROVIDED IN THIS SUBDIVISION, THE HANDLING FEE
PAID SHALL NOT BE LESS THAN FIVE CENTS.
(C) BEGINNING DECEMBER THIRTY-FIRST, TWO THOUSAND EIGHTEEN, EACH YEAR A NEW FEDERAL OR NEW YORK STATE MINIMUM WAGE IS TO TAKE EFFECT, BUT NOT LATER THAN THE DATE THAT THE NEW FEDERAL OR NEW YORK STATE MINIMUM WAGE IS TO TAKE EFFECT, THE COMMISSIONER SHALL DETERMINE THE HANDLING FEE TO BE IN EFFECT PURSUANT TO THIS SUBDIVISION. SUBJECT TO PARAGRAPH (D) OF THIS SUBDIVISION, THE HANDLING FEE DETERMINED PURSUANT TO THIS SUBDIVISION SHALL BE:
(I) NOT LESS THAN THE AMOUNT IN EFFECT UNDER PARAGRAPH (B) ON THE DATE
OF SUCH DETERMINATION;
(II) INCREASED FROM SUCH AMOUNT BY THE PERCENTAGE INCREASE IN THE
NEWLY EFFECTIVE FEDERAL OR NEW YORK STATE MINIMUM WAGE; AND
(III) ROUNDED TO THE NEAREST MULTIPLE OF $0.005.
(D) THE HANDLING FEE SHALL ONLY BE INCREASED BY THE PERCENTAGE INCREASE IN A NEWLY EFFECTIVE FEDERAL MINIMUM WAGE PURSUANT TO PARAGRAPH
(C) OF THIS SUBDIVISION IF THE FEDERAL MINIMUM WAGE IS SET AT AN AMOUNT HIGHER THAN THE NEW YORK STATE MINIMUM WAGE. OTHERWISE, THE HANDLING FEE SHALL BE INCREASED ONLY BY THE PERCENTAGE INCREASE IN A NEWLY EFFECTIVE NEW YORK STATE MINIMUM WAGE PURSUANT TO PARAGRAPH (C) OF THIS SUBDIVISION. IF A NEWLY EFFECTIVE NEW YORK STATE MINIMUM WAGE INCREASES BASED ON A WAGE RATE SCHEDULE THAT VARIES THROUGHOUT NEW YORK STATE, THEN THE PERCENTAGE INCREASE TO BE USED FOR CALCULATING THE HANDLING FEE SHALL BE BASED ON THE WAGE RATE APPLICABLE TO CITY OF NEW YORK EMPLOYERS WITH ELEVEN EMPLOYEES OR MORE PURSUANT TO PARAGRAPH (C) OF THIS SUBDIVISION.
§ 2. This act shall take effect immediately.

https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2017/S5366

09/05/2024

The state has not given an increase to redemption centers since 2009, when the water bottles were added. In 2009, the minimum wage was $7.25 an hour!! Our payroll, taxes, utilities, rents, etc., have doubled or tripled since then.
Only about 20% of cans and bottles ever get returned, so the state is sitting on a slush fund containing the nickels from the other 80%…millions of dollars a year. They are trying to take that money for other things, and it’s not in their best interest to give us more money.
Pepsi had a huge, costly campaign this year about how another nickel would make them double their prices. NOT TRUE…Nestle tried this tactic in 2009, when they added the water. Didn’t happen.
There has been a Bill in Albany, held up in committee for 3 years, that would give us another penny and a half handling fee per can. It has not moved…Rachel May and others tried to push through an emergency bill this year, but it didn’t happen. But the state legislators pushed right through a bill to give themselves another 29% increase, and Kathy Hochul gave her husbands Buffalo Bills org. billions for their new stadium. They just gave Pepsi a boatload of money to improve and enlarge their bottle center in Cicero!!!
If you’ve traveled much, you see the garbage in other states that goes unchecked. Recycling does help our environment and results in less going into the landfills, and New York State officials spend a LOT of time talking about their environmental plans, but they have failed to act on this matter. 50 returns closed last year. They are closing more every day, and grocery stores do not want to handle these returnables, and we can no longer employ people because there isn’t enough to pay them, so people are losing their jobs.
If you go to your bottle return and it’s closed for the day, it’s because they don’t have any help, they can’t pay their help, or they are out of cash and can’t pay out in the cans. Contact your legislature at every level and tell them you want your nickels back!!! They are hoping that you’ll give up and throw them away, so they can keep your money. Tell them to pass the bigger, better bottle bill…that’s its nickname, as we’ve been fighting this hard for two years. Save your local redemption center!!

07/07/2024

Now bags of garbage are being dumped out by the trailers. I will prosecute the next person I catch doing this. It is not acceptable behavior and I do not take garbage. The cameras are in position…

06/23/2024

So, New York State legislators decided that us bottle returns can get by on 2009 incomes while they STEAL the money from the bottle return fund that we all pay into when we purchase nickel deposit items. Don’t be surprised if more bottle returns close as a result. Our payroll expenses and EVERY cost have more than doubled since 2009, and they voted themselves another 29% increase in salary this session, but the rest of us have to get by on next to nothing. VOTE THEM OUT!!!!

06/23/2024

Please stop leaving your garbage on my bottle return porch!!! I do not take vitamin or medicine bottle, mouthwash containers, ice tea or any other nonreturnables. If it continues, there will be consequences…thank you!!!

05/31/2024

HEY NEW YORKERS! Do you like being lied to by billionaires?

While New York's bottle redemption system faces a total collapse due to state neglect for over 15 years, Pepsi is lying to you to try and sway your opinion. They claim to be environmentally friendly, but have been trying to shut down the bottle bill in Albany. They’re paying for misleading ads in newspapers, on the radio, social media, YouTube and even streaming services like Hulu. They've been sending targeted mass text messages, and now are going into grocery stores and putting misleading tags like this on their containers. This label makes you believe that if New York passes the Bigger, Better Bottle Bill, the costs of your beverages will double. That is a lie. Don't let them use you like this.

The truth is, if this legislation does not pass THIS SESSION, New York is going to be the very first state to cause a bottle deposit system to fail. After over 40 years of its success. And you, the consumer, will suffer the consequences.

Redemption centers are having to turn away more and more containers as they are not covered under current legislation. They also haven't seen a raise on their handling fee (how they get paid to process containers-not the same as the deposit) since 2009. They are being paid a mere 3.5¢ while suffering 2024 expenses. Would you survive that way? Redemption centers have been closing down in droves over the last couple of years due to this crisis. Thousands of jobs are unnecessarily being lost. If this bill does not pass, many more will close and this system will buckle.

Without redemption centers, you will have to return to using stores for your returns. This will leave you with the hassle of going to multiple stores for various brands, and facing volume limitations. The burden this will put on stores will be very problematic. They simply are not equipped to handle the billions of containers that redemption centers do. You will begin losing access to an overburdened system. And the thousands of charity and community organizations that fundraise via botte drives will lose access to tens of thousands of dollars for their causes. Pepsi won't tell you this. They're telling you if the bill passes, they will have no choice but to fire people. The truth is, studies have proven that consumers don't stop buying beverages due to deposits. A deposit was added to water in 2009, and you continue to buy it. Nestle is bigger now than ever. If Pepsi fires people, it won't be because of the bottle bill. It will be because their priorities are messed up. Their CEO was paid $34 million last year, a 19% increase from the previous year. That is just ONE person's annual salary.

Meanwhile, redemption center owners are losing their homes, taking second jobs, working alone to try and stay above water. We urge you to contact your legislators TODAY to tell them to pass bills S237c and A6353a immediately. If they don't, this system will collapse. And when you run out of places to return your containers and decide to throw them away, companies like Pepsi will get to keep your unclaimed deposit money.

Also call the leaders of the Senate and Assembly:
Carl Heastie: 518-455-3791
Andrea Stewart-Cousins: 518-455-2585

01/15/2024

STILL trying to find the rightful owner of this ring!! It has initials and a date on the inside... Out of desperation, I will say that the initials of the couple are JC & JC - anyone know a man and woman with the same initials that were married in the late 50's? Let's get this ring returned!! Still have to know the date to claim!! PLEASE HELP!!!