Governor Andrew M. Cuomo in January announced a bottle bill expansion and a plastic bag ban will be included in this year’s Executive Budget. The Governor is advancing legislation to expand New York's Bottle Bill to make most non-alcoholic drink containers eligible for 5-cent redemption. Additionally, Governor Cuomo will advance legislation to ban all single-use plastic bags. JPCA has advocated for many years for elimination of the 5-cent redemption fee as a quality of life initiative because of the prevalence of bottle collectors that make a mess and trespass on private property in search of cans and bottles. NYC has had recycling program for decades and therefore a deposit is unnecessary and causes problems. It would have been bolder for the Governor to have mandated recycling state wide across all municipalities.