Griesa said in court that a provision of the law requiring water bottles to carry special labels to ensure they are sold only in New York violates the Constitution’s commerce clause.
When the law was written, a provision was added forcing beverage makers to mark all their products with new bar codes (also called universal product codes) that show the bottles are sold in New York State.
The law, which was slated to take effect on 1 June, adds bottled water to the list of beverages on which consumers pay a deposit of $0.05 per bottle. The deposits are collected on bottles of carbonated beverages, wine coolers and beer.
Water bottlers and area beer brewers say they have a problem with a requirement that they put New York-specific bar codes on bottles.
“The bottle-bill expansion is in place, but it has been stopped by a federal judge from being effective,” said Sen John Bonacic, R-Mount Hope. “There’s a senate proposal to statutorily delay its implementation and remove the coding requirements on each bottle. This would likely solve the legal objections.
“The bottle bill’s expansion was rushed into place as part of the secret state budget negotiations, more for the purpose of making money for the state than actually protecting the environment,” Bonacic added. “The budget language was flawed and unconstitutional. This is what happens when the entire budget is negotiated in secret, in haste, by three New York City democrats, and one of the many reasons why I voted against the budget.”
Assemblyman Clifford Crouch, R-Guilford, said a bill was under consideration by the Ways and Means Committee to delay the implementation of the law until 1 January, but the legislation never made it out of committee.
“Obviously, there’s a problem with the law, and I had questioned whether it was constitutional,” said Crouch. “But this ruling obviates the need for legislation.”
Crouch added that he believes a lot of environmental groups backed the law believing the funds generated would be going into the Environmental Protection Fund, when the monies are actually slated for the general fund.
The bottle law also allows the state to begin collecting 80% of unclaimed deposits on all beverages requiring deposits, including water. Bottlers had been keeping that money, but the state budget includes a total of unclaimed state deposit collections of $115m for the year, including $29m from water bottles.
The judge’s ruling doesn’t prevent the state from collecting unclaimed deposits from other beverages.
Lawmakers passed the law as part of the state budget, and Governor David Paterson signed it in early April.
In court, attorney Adam Charnes argued for Nestlé Waters North America and other bottlers that forcing companies to create bottles that can only be sold in New York would result in substantial revenue losses as well as price increases for consumers.
He said bottlers need to be able to market their products in all states and need more time to prepare for changes, such as setting up a system to collect deposits on water bottles.
Breweries and other beverage makers would have to keep separate inventories and records for products sold in New York. New labelling equipment would cost thousands of dollars, and sorting beers by destination would be grossly inefficient, according to Charnes.
The state attorney general’s office had no immediate comment on the judge’s ruling.
Environmentalists said the new deposits will promote recycling of the 3.2 billion water bottles sold annually in New York State. The law increases the handling fee paid to retailers and redemption centres from 2 to 3.5 cents per container.
A measure proposed last week by the Paterson administration would postpone the deposits for a month and the higher handling fee for four months, would eliminate the state-specific code, and create a two-tier handling fee where big retailers such as supermarkets get only 2.5 cents per container.
Source: The Daily Star, Oneonta, NY
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