Relating to the redemption and handling of beverage containers, providing civil penalties, and including effective date provisions

Under current law, a consumer may return an empty beverage container upon which a refund value has been paid to a dealer or a redemption center. When a distributor collects empty beverage containers from a dealer, dealer agent, or redemption center, the distributor reimburses the dealer, dealer agent, or redemption center the refund value plus a 1-cent handling fee for each empty beverage container. Current law also allows any person to establish a redemption center that serves a dealer if it is approved by the department of natural resources. Any person can also establish an unapproved redemption center. Under this bill, a dealer may choose to not accept beverage containers by providing notice to the department beginning July 1, 2020. The bill raises the handling fee paid by a distributor to cents for each empty beverage container. The bill allows a person to establish a redemption center by providing notice to the department. The bill also requires each beverage container to have a registered universal product code in a format required by the department. These provisions take effect upon enactment. The bill creates civil enforcement procedures and penalties for a violation of the provisions of the bill. The bill makes numerous changes throughout Code chapter 455C to change instances of “dealer” to “participating dealer”, remove obsolete language, and stylistically and grammatically update the Code chapter.