Lawsuit Filed to Block Law Encouraging Recycling of Water Bottles

By Nicholas Confessore, The New York Times

ALBANY – A coalition of bottled water companies filed suit on Tuesday to block an expanded bottle deposit law scheduled to take effect next month, arguing that the law, which imposes a deposit fee on bottled water sold in New York State, is unconstitutional.

The coalition includes Nestlé Waters North America; the International Bottled Water Association, an industry trade group; and Keeper Springs, a small bottler owned by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an environmental advocate.

The new law requires distributors to collect a 5-cent deposit per bottle of water, which can in turn be redeemed by consumers, provisions designed to encourage New Yorkers to recycle the billions of water bottles now thrown away each year. But companies that bottle water must affix a new universal product code label to bottles sold in New York.

In a complaint filed in United States District Court in Manhattan, the water companies argued that the labeling requirement violates the Constitution’s equal protection clause because the language of the bill excludes any drink to which sugar has been added, like sports drinks. The complaint also charges that the requirement violates the Constitution’s interstate commerce protections because the wording of the law also seems to ban companies from selling the New York-labeled bottles in other states.

The lawsuit comes as Gov. David A. Paterson, who pushed to include the expanded recycling law as part of the budget passed in April, is considering proposals that would scrap or delay some of aspects of the program, like moving back the June 1 deadline for companies to begin using the UPC label.

In a court filing supporting the lawsuit, Mr. Kennedy, who is also chief prosecuting attorney of Riverkeeper, an environmental group, said the new law would undermine municipal recycling programs by depriving them of revenue from recycled plastic water bottles. Riverkeeper has staunchly supported expanding the deposit law to include bottled water. Mr. Kennedy said that he was speaking for himself and not for Riverkeeper.

In an interview, Mr. Kennedy said that that “the sugar lobby, and its indentured servants in the Legislature,” wrote the law to penalize bottlers of plain water.

“There is no rational basis for penalizing water,” Mr. Kennedy said. “It means that if I add a little sugar to my water, I don’t have to pay my redemption fee.”

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Source:  The New York Times