Senate hearing on H.915 spotlights technology investment and governance as lawmakers weigh bottle-bill reforms

The Senate Natural Resources & Energy Committee convened April 8 to consider H.915, legislation to create a producer responsibility organization for beverage containers and modernize Vermont’s decades-old bottle-bill system. Witnesses from recyclers, distributors and technology providers described a program that consistently produces high-quality recycled material but relies on manual sorting and faces labor and fraud pressures.

"These programs are the rock stars of recycling," said Susan Collins, president of the Container Recycling Institute, summing up the evidence behind deposit-return systems and noting U.S. states with bottle bills had 2023 redemption rates ranging roughly from 38% to 86%. Collins urged a set of precise amendments included in a letter to the committee to avoid implementation mistakes she said occurred recently in Connecticut and Maine.

Bri Deedley, principal of Breezeway Consulting representing the Beverage Association of Vermont, described Vermont’s current operations as highly manual—"about 145 million containers" returned in 2025 with roughly 2% processed by barcode-scanning machines—and said the state needs targeted investment and stronger governance. Deedley said a cooperative formed by distributors currently handles roughly 84% of returns and that a mandatory PRO could consolidate responsibilities and enable technology deployment at scale.

The bill as written would permit the agency to distribute a limited portion of unclaimed deposits to fund grants for technology upgrades; witnesses repeatedly referenced a time-limited $3.5 million grant pool in the draft. Deedley and others said bulk reverse-vending machines (machines that accept a bag of mixed containers and read barcodes in bulk) can dramatically reduce manual sorting and truck traffic but are capital intensive and most economically viable only at high-throughput centers.

Technology providers and redemption-center advocates pressed for conditions and protections. Mike Noel, public affairs director at TOMRA, said he previously supported earlier committee versions but opposed the introduced draft primarily because it eliminates or narrows the statutory handling fee for containers managed by a PRO. "Without clarity and guardrails," Noel told the committee, the compensation changes could leave redemption centers financially exposed; he urged adding arbitration or an independent compensation-setting mechanism, requiring product registration (UPCs) for automated acceptance, preserving minimum operating-hour requirements, and ensuring plan-review authority for the agency.

Public-interest and environmental groups voiced conditional support for modernization but emphasized consumer convenience and the preservation of redemption capacity. Paul Burns, executive director of the Vermont Public Interest Research Group, welcomed targeted use of unclaimed deposits for technology grants but cautioned that removing the per-container handling fee would risk closure of small redemption centers unless a clear, enforceable compensation floor and periodic review were included.

Committee members asked detailed operational and financial questions. Senator Beck asked whether bulk machines cost about $100,000 and whether centers could buy machines independently; witnesses replied many are lease financed or grant-funded and that the committee should target grants to large-volume locations first. Senators and witnesses also debated whether declaring large grocery stores ‘‘redemption centers’’ in law guarantees useful consumer access in practice, and whether minimum hours or throughput criteria should be set.

The committee did not take votes. Chair Watson and members said they would collect written recommendations from witnesses and consider producing a revised draft; the committee scheduled further testimony from redemption-center operators and additional technical follow-up.

The hearing illustrated the central trade-offs of reform: a centralized PRO and targeted, time-limited grants could unlock automation and reduce manual handling, but lawmakers must balance governance, transparent compensation, and consumer convenience to avoid destabilizing the existing network of local redemption centers. The committee will accept written language from stakeholders and consider revisions before deciding whether to advance H.915.