Senate Adds Wine Coolers to Bottle Law

Environmentalists scored a big victory Thursday when the state Senate voted overwhelmingly to add wine cooler bottles to California’s beverage container recycling law.

The Senate’s 30-1 vote on a bill by Assemblyman Byron D. Sher (D-Palo Alto) signaled an end to the wine industry opposition that had won an exemption for wine cooler bottles when the recycling law took effect last year.

Before going to Gov. George Deukmejian, the wine cooler measure will return to the Assembly for approval of amendments added by the Senate.

Currently, the state’s anti-litter “bottle law” applies to beer and soft drink aluminum cans and bottles only, requiring distributors to pay a penny per container into a state recycling fund. The cost can be passed on to the consumer, who can redeem the penny by taking each empty container to a recycling center.

Percentage of Market

Sher said the nearly 200 million wine coolers sold in California last year represented more than 8% of the market in glass beverage containers.

The wine cooler measure narrowly passed the Assembly in January. To mollify industry opponents, the Senate agreed to strip from the Assembly version containers of non-alcoholic wine and of carbonated drinks made up entirely of fruit juice. Those are treated under state law as non-taxable food items.

Sen. Becky Morgan (R-Los Altos Hills) said she was annoyed by the exemptions, but nonetheless supported the bill. Only Sen. Jim Ellis (R-San Diego) voted no.

An aide to Sen. Henry J. Mello (D-Watsonville), who shepherded the Sher bill through the upper house, said she expects the new version to meet approval from both the Assembly and the governor.

If so, it will be the first major expansion of the state’s recycling law, which won approval in 1986 after two decades of debate between environmentalists and the food, beverage and market industries. Recycling advocates hope ultimately to expand the law to include all glass and aluminum food and beverage containers.

The Sher measure would not take effect until Jan. 1, 1990.