New York's bottle return law would expand from a 5-cent redemption to 10 cents and add more categories of beverage container to be redeemed under a measure introduced this month by Assemblyman Kevin Cahill. 

The proposal has been supported in recent days by environmental organizations in the state who are pushing for another expansion of the state's bottle law in order to boost and encourage recycling.

“The Bottle Law is the most successful waste diversion and recycling program offered by New York State," said Cahill, a Hudson Valley Democrat. "Increasing the deposit and adding containers for wine, iced tea and sports drinks will further incentivize returning these materials and remove litter from our roads and waterways."

The bill would expand the kind of containers New Yorkers can redeem to include some wine and liquor bottles as well as dairy products, iced teas and sports drinks.  

The current law has decreased litter by up to 70%. The bill would be the first significant update to the state's bottle return and deposit law since 2009 when water bottles were added.

"Municipal recycling programs are suffering due to large amounts of glass breakage in recycling loads," said Eric Wood, the Hudson Valley Regional Coordinator at NYPIRG. "Putting a deposit on wine and liquor bottles will significantly reduce the amount of breakage we see in our municipal recycling stream and boost recycling efforts immensely with an updated law,"