The bottle bill did not pass in Massachusetts this year. If it had passed, some things would have changed. The bottle and can deposit amount would have gone to 10 cents instead of 5 cents. It has been five cents a can since 1983. Some states do not have redemption programs.

States with a 5 cents return program: Hawaii, Iowa, Massachusetts, California (tiered to ten cents), and Maine. States with a 10 cents return program: Michigan and Oregon.

There are a ton of recyclable items in Massachusetts, but not all of them are accepted at redemption centers across the commonwealth.

States like Michigan with higher incentives to return (10 cents) have an over 80% return rate.

Today in Massachusetts there are 41 non-retail redemption centers, 33 of these are concentrated in southeastern Massachusetts and around Boston.  For central Massachusetts residents, there are two redemption centers in Worcester and one in Dudley.  Western Massachusetts has even less coverage with just 5 redemption centers [29].  This patchy coverage leaves residents in the central and western portions of the state with very few redemption options. -massrecycle.org

Massachusetts will stamp returnable items to your local redemption center for 5 cents each

• Beer cans
• Soda cans
• Soda bottles
• Malt beverage bottle
• Sparkling water
• Regular water

Items that are not accepted at redemption centers in Massachusetts

• nips
• milk
• laundry detergent bottles
• wine bottles
• liquor bottles
• lemonade

Recycling activists have been trying to change a few rules to the antiquated system and nip bottles are at the top of the list due to the fact that they are a big cause of litter in Massachusetts.

Some towns have even banned the sale of nips because of the litter, instead Massachusetts should just make them returnable with deposit like beer cans some say.