New Jersey Distributor Owes New York State after Repeated Violations of Bottle Bill

LongIsland.com

The New Jersey based distributor, FID LLC, went against the Bottle bill law and can no longer work with New York State.

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A distributing company based out of New Jersey has come under fire recently for continuous violations of New York’s Returnable Container Act. Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman says the distributor now has to pay up $160,000 for violating the Bottle Bill. The Department of Conservation and the Attorney Generals Office found that the company, FID LLC, broke the law by collecting deposits on beverage containers it sold but did not give New York 80% of the deposits that were never claimed.
 
“The Bottle Bill is one of New York’s hallmark environmental laws. Companies that skirt the Bottle Bill not only hurt recycling and anti-littering efforts, they also deprive the State of critical funding for environmental protection programs,” Attorney General Schneiderman said. “FID Distributors broke the law by pocketing unclaimed deposits that it owed to the state.”
 
The Bottle bill requires by law that a 5-cent deposit is to be collected before or during the sale of a beverage container in New York. The company collecting the deposit must then register with the New York State Department of Taxation, and hold the deposits in a refund account. The account is set up to reimburse retailers and redemption centers that return empty containers. These deposit initiators must then send to the State 80% of the unclaimed deposits held in the account on a quarterly basis.
 
The investigation found that between October 2010 and May 2012, the Jersey distributor failed to register as a deposit initiator with New York State, create the required deposit refund account, and did not send 80% of the unclaimed deposits. Due to this the company collected a total of $329,426.
 
The issue was resolved Wednesday through an Assurance of Discontinuance signed by FID and the Attorney General’s office. The settlement requires the company to pay New York State a total of $159,227 due to them being unable to pay the full amount of unclaimed deposits by the state. Now FID can no longer work with New York.
 
[Source: Attorney General Eric Schneiderman]