Lawmakers voted in the waning hours of Tuesday's marathon session to repeal the “bottle bill,” a 5-cent deposit placed on bottled beverages that could be redeemed if the consumer returned the empty bottle to the store.

Rep. John J. Viola, who sponsored House Bill 201, said that in an age of single-stream, curbside recycling, the 25-year-old bottle bill had outlived its usefulness.

“I spoke to distributors, stores, residents and other and found that the deposit was not effective at improving recycling. None of the three surrounding states have a bottle bill and their recycling rate is higher than ours,” said Rep. Viola, D-Newark. “Single-stream, curbside recycling is the future for recycling, not a nickel deposit. People like me who do curbside recycling don’t even bother bringing the bottles back to the store. We just place them in the container, so we lose money.”

“This law has cost consumers tens of millions of dollars – if not, hundreds of millions of dollars – five cents at a time. When you go to the store and buy a bottled drink, it doesn’t cost $1.25 like it says. The computer adds five cents at the register. It’s my hope that stores get rid of this hidden tax with the passage of this bill.”

Rep. Viola said he hopes that the state will focus its efforts on improving and increasing recycling efforts throughout the state.

Under HB 201, the bottle bill will be repealed, effective September 1, 2010. Distributors are required to provide dealers with notice of the effective date of the repeal and place a public notice in retail locations from January 1, 2010, through September 30, 2010.

HB 201 passed the House 35-3 and the Senate 12-6.