Unclaimed Bottle Deposits No Budget Booster For Conn.

HARTFORD, CT (WCBS 880) - Unclaimed water bottle deposits are not turning out to be the bonanza for which Connecticut state officials had hoped.

LISTEN: WCBS 880 Connecticut Bureau Chief Fran Schneidau reports

The Nutmeg State will come up short on the $17 million a year it had hoped to collect from unclaimed nickel deposits on water and soda bottles, WCBS 880 Connecticut Bureau Chief Fran Schneidau reports.

It turns out people are redeeming the bottles themselves, or perhaps buying less bottled water.

Paul Nunnenmacher, a spokesman for the Connecticut Resources Recovery Authority, says he's seen a 30 percent drop-off in recycled plastic bottles - and that means a lot less money will be going back to town recycling efforts.

Nunnenmacher says it is "a bad thing, because towns are doing a good job of recycling."

Connecticut expanded its bottle bill last year to include plastic water bottles, hoping to cash in on millions of dollars from the unclaimed and discarded empties.