WATERTOWN — The line outside Fran’s Cans and Bart’s Bottles had already grown to roughly a dozen customers by the time doors to the business opened at 10 a.m. Friday, each waiting patiently with garbage bags filled to the brim with an assortment of water bottles, juice containers, and the ubiquitous beer and soda cans.
Inside the warehouse, the morning rush produced a flurry of activity as workers began counting and sorting the haul — more than 11,000 bottles and cans in just the first half hour of business.
“It’s been like this all week,” said owner Francis Bartolomeo, before rattling off sums that he said were double his winter average. “Tuesday was 55,000, Wednesday 44,000, (Thursday) was 38,000.”
Beginning on Jan. 1, the reward for turning in eligible bottles and cans doubled from 5 cents to 10 cents, as part of the final phase of a three-year overhaul of the state’s “Bottle Bill.”
The revisions, which were the result of legislation passed in 2021, are part of an effort to bolster Connecticut’s stagnant rate of returns on eligible bottles and cans, while also updating the decades-old program to include more modern products like kombucha, iced teas, sports drinks and certain hard seltzers.
To do so, lawmakers crafted a series of amendments to the Byzantine system for collecting deposits from wholesalers, paying retailers and redemption centers to collect the empties and finally returning unclaimed deposits — or escheats — to the wholesalers and the state’s general fund. The process proved so complicated that lawmakers twice had to come back to agree on fixes to the law, while an entire website was created to help residents understand the changes.
For many, however, the payoff came this month in the form of the one-time chance to profit off of bottles and cans that had been purchased last year with the lower, 5-cent deposit.
“I figure we’re paying for the bottles, they might as well give us some type of tip,” said Joann Mattocks of Waterbury, as she dropped off a bag filled with some 500 bottles that had piled up at her home for the last several months, in anticipation of the switch.
For that many bottles, the value of waiting was worth as much as $25. Mattocks said she has several more similar-sized bags stored at home, but that she can only carry one or two at a time.
At the Central Connecticut Redemption Center in New Britain, owner Shahil Kantesaria said there appeared to be “quite a bit of hoarding” by customers during the final months of 2023. The resulting tide of post-New Year’s returns, he said, brought his business between 200,000 to 300,000 containers in just a few days — two to three times his weekly average.
“We’ll see if this holds,” said Kantesaria. “We’re wondering if this is the new normal.”
In order to prepare for the switch, lawmakers increased the handling fee for businesses to accept returns, while the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection invested $1.6 million in improvements at redemption centers to help meet the expected demand.
The result, according to Bartolomeo and Kantesaria, has been a relatively smooth — albeit busy — transition to the new 10-cent return. For grocers and retailers, which represent the other segment of the collection network, the atmosphere at the start of the New Year has been “busy, but not overrun,” said Wayne Pesce, the president of the Connecticut Food Association, and trade association.
Most larger retail chains in Connecticut — such as Wal-Mart and Stop & Shop — are now required to have at least two reverse vending machines for customers to return empty containers sold at their stores. Those businesses were also allowed to begin limiting returns to no more than 240 bottles and cans at a time starting on Jan. 1, which Pesce said he has advised most stores to do.
“This isn’t what they want to do for a living, they’re not in the recycling business,” Pesce said.
Kantesaria, who has been in the business for 21 years, said the sudden influx in returns this week was still not enough to top the piles of cans that redemption centers handled during the pandemic — a boom period for returns that he attributed to increased consumption driven by stimulus checks.
Connecticut is now one of three states, along with Michigan and Oregon, that offers a 10-cent redemption value for bottles and cans. The seven other states that have passed bottle bills each offer a 5-cent return. (Some states offer higher returns on larger-sized liquor and wine bottles, which are not covered under Connecticut’s Bottle Bill).
Still, Bartolomeo said that he does not anticipate many customers driving in from other states such as New York and Massachusetts to take advantage of the additional windfall.
“If you came down with a box truck, maybe,” it would be worth the trip, he said. “It’s too far of a drive.”
Over time, Bartolomeo said the biggest beneficiaries of the increased deposit will be individual “pickers” and charitable groups that collect the containers that others have paid the deposit on, turning them in for a profit.
One such group, the Morris Cares food bank, collects several thousand bottles and cans a month, cashing them in for funds to purchase bread, canned food and other staples to distribute to those in need, said Vincent Aiello, a volunteer for the group.
“It helps us quite a bit … it doubles our money really,” Aiello said of the recent change.
On Friday morning, Aiello arrived at Fran’s Cans and Bart’s Bottles with several bags filled with 600 bottles, enough for a $60 redemption. As he left, Aiello arranged to come by later and drop off another batch of 1,500 containers over the weekend.
A pile of such size would be no problem, Bartolomeo said. He was already expecting a local Boy Scout troop to come by with an even bigger haul — 30,000 bottles and cans — that they had been collecting and saving up for months.
It’s a scheme made famous by a nearly 30-year-old episode of the sitcom Seinfeld.
Hoping to earn a quick buck, two characters load a mail truck full of soda bottles and beer cans purchased with a redeemable 5-cent deposit in New York, before traveling to Michigan, where they can be recycled for 10 cents apiece. With few thousand cans, they calculate, the trip will earn a decent profit. In the end, the plan fell apart.
But after Connecticut raised the value of its own bottle deposits to 10 cents in 2024, officials say, they were caught off guard by a flood of such fraudulent returns coming in from out of state. Redemption rates have reached 97%, and some beverage distributors have reported millions of dollars in losses as a result of having to pay out for excess returns of their products.
On Thursday, state lawmakers passed an emergency bill to crack down on illegal returns by increasing fines, requiring redemption centers to keep track of bulk drop-offs and allowing local police to go after out-of-state violators.
“I’m heartbroken,” said House Speaker Matt Ritter, D-Hartford, who supported the effort to increase deposits to 10 cents and expand the number of items eligible for redemption. “I spent a lot of political capital to get the bottle bill passed in 2021, and never in a million years did I think that New York, New Jersey and Rhode Island residents would return so many bottles.”
The legislation, Senate Bill 299, would increase fines for violating the bottle bill law from $50 to $500 on a first offense. For third and subsequent offenses, the penalty would increase from $250 to $2,000 and misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in prison.
In addition, it requires redemption centers to be licensed by the state’s Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (previously, those businesses were only required to register with DEEP). As a condition of their license, redemption centers must keep records of anyone seeking to redeem more than 1,000 bottles and cans in a single day.
Anyone not affiliated with a qualified nonprofit would be prohibited from redeeming more than 4,000 bottles a day, down from the previous limit of 5,000.
The bill also seeks to pressure some larger redemption centers into adopting automated scanning technologies, such as reverse vending machines, by temporarily lowering the handling fee that is paid on each beverage container processed by those centers.
The bill easily passed the Senate on Wednesday and the House on Thursday on its way to Gov. Ned Lamont.
While the bill drew bipartisan support, Republicans described it as a temporary fix to a growing problem.
House Minority Leader Vincent Candelora, R-North Branford, called the switch to 10-cent deposits an “unmitigated disaster” and said he believed out-of-state redemption centers were offloading much of their inventory within Connecticut.
“The sheer quantity that is being redeemed in the state of Connecticut, this isn’t two people putting cans into a post office truck,” Candelora said. “This is far more organized than that.”
The impact of those excess returns is felt mostly by the state’s wholesale beverage distributors, who initiate the redemption process by collecting an additional 10 cents on every eligible bottle and can they sell to supermarkets, liquor stores and other retailers within Connecticut. The distributors are required to pay that money back — plus a handling fee — once the containers are returned to the store or a redemption center.
According to the state’s Department of Revenue Services, nearly 12% of wholesalers reported having to pay out more redemptions than they collected in deposits in 2025. Those losses totaled $11.3 million.
Peter Gallo, the vice president of Star Distributors in West Haven, said his company’s losses alone have totaled more than $2 million since the increase on deposits went into effect two years ago. As time goes on, he said, the deficit has only grown.
“We’re hoping we can get something fixed here, because it’s a tough pill to be holding on to debt that we should get paid for,” Gallo said.
Still, officials say they have no way of tracking precisely how many of the roughly 2 billion containers that were redeemed in the state last year were illegally brought in from other states. That’s because most products lack any kind of identifiable marking indicating where they were sold.
“There’s no way to tell right now. That’s one of the core issues here,” said state Rep. John-Michael Parker, D-Madison, who co-chairs the legislature’s Environment Committee.
Parker said the issue could be solved if product labels were printed with a specific barcode or other feature that would be unique to Connecticut. Such a solution, for now, has faced technological challenges and pushback from the beverage industry, he said.
Not everyone involved in the handling, sorting and redemption of bottles is happy about the upcoming changes — or the process by which they were approved.
Francis Bartolomeo, the owner of a Fran’s Cans and Bart’s Bottles in Watertown, said he was only made aware of the legislation on Monday from a fellow redemption center owner. Since then, he said, he’s been contacting his legislators to oppose the bill and was frustrated by the lack of a public hearing.
“I know other people are as flabbergasted as I am because they don’t know where it comes out of,” Bartolomeo said “It’s a one sided affair, really.”
Bartolomeo said one of his biggest concerns with the bill is the $2,500 annual licensing fee that it would place on redemption centers. While he agreed that out-of-state redemptions are a problem, he said it should be up to the state to improve enforcement.
“We’re cleaning up the mess, and we’re going to end up being penalized,” Bartolomeo said. “Get rid of it and go back to 5 cents if it’s that big of a hindrance, but don’t penalize the redemption centers for what you imposed.”
Lynn Little of New Milford Redemption Center supports the increased penalties but believes the solution ultimately lies with better labeling by the distributors. She is also frustrated by the volume caps after the state initially gave grants to residents looking to open their own bottle redemption businesses.
“They’re taking a volume business, because any business where you make 3 cents per unit (the average handling fee) is a volume business, and limiting the volume we can take in, you’re crushing small businesses,” Little said.
Ritter said that he opposed a move back to the 5-cent deposit, which he noted was increased to encourage recycling. However, he said the current situation has become politically untenable and puts the state at risk of a lawsuit from distributors.
“We’re getting to a point where we’re going to lose the bottle bill,” Ritter said. “If we got sued in court, I think we’d lose.”
NEW BRITAIN, CT — Stanley Black & Decker on Thursday said it has decided to close its manufacturing facility in New Britain.
Debora Raymond, vice president of external communications for the manufacturer, said the decision is a result of a “structural decline in demand for single-sided tape measures.”
The New Britain facility predominantly makes these products, according to Raymond.
“These products are quickly becoming obsolete in the markets we serve,” Raymond said, via an emailed statement Thursday.
The decision is expected to impact approximately 300 employees, according to Raymond.
“We are focused on supporting impacted employees through this transition, including providing options for employment at other facilities, severance, and job placement support services for both salaried and hourly employees,” Raymond said.
As of Thursday at 4:30 p.m., no Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act notice had been filed with the state Department of Labor.
The company’s corporate headquarters remains at 1000 Stanley Dr., New Britain.
Gov. Ned Lamont released the following statement on the decision:
“Although Stanley has made the decision to discontinue operations for manufacturing outdated products, a change in workforce opportunities is difficult for employees, their families, and any community.,” Lamont said. “However, I am hopeful that these skilled workers will be repurposed with the help of Stanley Black & Decker, a company that will still proudly be headquartered here in Connecticut. My administration is working closely with local and state leaders to support affected workers and to reimagine the factory site so it can continue to create opportunity and strengthen New Britain’s economic future.”
New Britain Mayor Bobby Sanchez said he is “deeply disappointed” the company will be closing its Myrtle Street operations.
“For generations, Stanley Works has been part of the fabric of our city, providing good-paying jobs, supporting families, and helping build New Britain’s proud reputation as the ‘Hardware City,’” Sanchez said.
According to the mayor, his office’s immediate focus is on helping affected workers and their families. The mayor has been in contact with Lamont’s office, and they will be working closely to make sure employees have access to job placement services, retraining opportunities and support, Sanchez said.
“We will continue aggressively pursuing economic development opportunities and attracting businesses that are looking for a true community partner, a city ready to collaborate, innovate and grow alongside them,” Sanchez said. “New Britain has reinvented itself before, and we will do so again.”
Stanley Black & Decker, founded in 1843, operates manufacturing facilities worldwide, according to its website. It reports having 43,500 employees globally, and makes an array of products, such as power tools and equipment, hand tools, and fasteners.
Newly released police video shows former WWE executive Vince McMahon ram his luxury sports car into the rear end of another vehicle on a Connecticut highway last summer as he was being followed by a state trooper.
McMahon, now 80, was driving his 2024 Bentley Continental GT at more than 100 mph on the Merritt Parkway when he crashed in the town of Westport, according to state police.
A trooper’s dashcam video shows McMahon accelerating away, then braking too late to avoid crashing into the back of a BMW. The Bentley then swerves into a guardrail and careens back across the highway, creating a cloud of dirt and car parts.
“Why were you driving all over 100 mph?” state police Detective Maxwell Robins asked McMahon after catching up to the wrecked Bentley, which can cost over $300,000.
“I got my granddaughter’s birthday” McMahon replied, explaining he was on his way to see her. The encounter was recorded on police bodycam video.
No one was seriously injured in the July 24 crash, which happened the same day that WWE legend Hulk Hogan died of a heart attack in Florida.
Besides damage to the rear of the BMW, another vehicle driving on the opposite side of the parkway was struck by flying debris. The driver of that third car happened to be wearing a WWE shirt, according to the police video.
McMahon was cited for reckless driving and following too closely. A state judge in October allowed McMahon to enter a pretrial probation program that will result in the charges being erased from his record next October if he successfully completes the program. He was also ordered to make a $1,000 charitable contribution.
McMahon’s lawyer, Mark Sherman, said the crash was just an accident.
“Not every car accident is a crime,” Sherman said. “Vince’s primary concern during this case was for the other drivers and is appreciative that the court saw this more of an accident than a crime that needed to be prosecuted.”
State police said Robins was trying to catch up to McMahon on the parkway and clock his speed before pulling him over. They said the incident was not a pursuit, which happens when police chase someone trying to flee officers. They also said it did not appear McMahon was trying to escape — though in the video the detective suggests otherwise.
“I’m trying to catch up to you and you keep taking off,” Robins says.
“No, no no. I’m not trying to outrun you,” McMahon says.
An accident information summary provided to the media shortly after the crash did not mention that a trooper was following McMahon.
The Associated Press obtained the videos Wednesday through a public records request. They were first obtained by The Sun newspaper.
The trooper’s bodycam video also shows him asking McMahon whether he was looking at his phone when the crash happened. McMahon said he was not and adds that he hadn’t driven his car in a long time.
After Robins tells McMahon that his car is fast, McMahon replies, “Yeah, too (expletive) fast.”
The videos also show McMahon talking to the driver he rear-ended. Barbara Doran, of New York City, told the AP last summer that McMahon expressed his concern for her and was glad she was OK. She said she was heading to a ferry to Martha’s Vineyard at the time of the crash.
After McMahon was given the traffic summons, he shook hands with Robins and another trooper and they wished him well.
McMahon stepped down as WWE’s CEO in 2022 amid a company investigation into sexual misconduct allegations. He also resigned as executive chairman of the board of directors of TKO Group Holdings, the parent company of WWE, in 2024, a day after a former WWE employee filed a sexual abuse lawsuit against him. McMahon has denied the allegations. The lawsuit remains pending.
McMahon bought what was then the World Wrestling Federation in 1982 and transformed it from a regional wrestling company into a worldwide phenomenon. Besides running the company with his wife, Linda, who is now the U.S. education secretary, he also performed at WWE events as himself.
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