CT has strengthened protections on key environmental issues. Here’s what to expect in 2026
January 2, 2026
Connecticut saw several environmental laws pass in 2025, from strengthening protections on toxic rodenticides use to further restricting forever chemicals, yet lawmakers say this year will see even greater focus on key environmental issues.
Lawmakers are eyeing bills on environmental challenges ranging from the state’s waste crisis, fixing loopholes in existing laws, further restricting helium balloons, and tightening fines for bottle deposit redemption misuse. State Sen. Rick Lopes, D-New Britain, chair of the environment committee, said that 2026 will be a busy year for shaping Connecticut’s environmental future.
“We expect this year’s session to be busy for the environment committee,” Lopes said. “There will have to be a real discussion about addressing the state’s waste crisis. That conversation has to be had. While it’s not an immediate issue, what if a landfill in Ohio tells us they’re not taking our trash anymore? Then we have a big problem.”
During the last legislative session, lawmakers passed several bills aimed at strengthening environmental laws. Among the most important pieces of legislation were restricting the use of second-generation anticoagulant rodenticides, or SGARs, which are a highly potent poison used for rat control that often kills wildlife and pets. The state also passed further restrictions on PFAS or “forever chemicals” banning them in fertilizer use and requiring companies to label if the chemicals are used in the manufacturing process.
After several years of inaction, the legislature also passed two major climate bills in 2025, hailed by environmental advocates for potentially slowing the impacts of man-made climate change. SB 9 gives towns better tools to protect residents from the impacts of climate change, through strengthening infrastructure against sea level rise and equipping residents with essential information about flood risks.
The legislature also passed HB 5004, which aims to curb greenhouse gas emissions, by updating the Global Warming Solutions Act with a net-zero-by-2050 target, supporting the economy through workforce development and local sustainable purchasing and leveraging solutions to protect shoreline communities and sequester carbon.
Addressing the waste crisis
Connecticut ships approximately 40-42% of its municipal solid waste, or about 860,000 to 940,000 tons annually, out of state for disposal, primarily to landfills in Pennsylvania and Ohio, according to the state’s Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. As those landfills begin to reach capacity, moving trash out of state becomes more and more costly.
The closure of MIRA’s major trash-to-energy plant in Hartford in 2022 forced the state to ship hundreds of thousands of tons of waste to other states, a costly way of disposing trash that leaves municipalities with little other options. Tipping fees, or the cost charged to municipalities to move waste out of the state, are increasing year after year causing financial burdens on towns, according to DEEP.
“We still have this issue with the amount of waste we ship out of state. We have to get a handle on this,” Lopes said. “The environmental impacts and costs to municipalities continue to escalate year after year. This isn’t an immediate problem, but if we don’t start working on it now, this could become a serious problem down the road. The solution is to produce less waste hauled out of state. We’re talking composting, extended producer liability laws and removing organic material out of the waste stream. But this year we need to start having a conversation on how to address this.”
Around 22% of trash in Connecticut is food scraps, DEEP estimates. Earlier this year, DEEP awarded $15 million in grants to municipalities across the state to build up investments in local and regional waste management infrastructures. The grants are part of the Materials Management Infrastructure Grant Program, marking the state’s largest investment in local and regional waste management infrastructure as a direct response to Connecticut’s waste crisis.
The money is set to go to building waste separation and sorting infrastructures, composting facilities, food scraps/food waste collection and processing equipment, infrastructure for managing hard-to-recycle materials such as plastic film and glass and helping establish regional materials reuse exchange shops.
“The main pillar of legislation we need to try and do is remove the heavy food waste from our trash stream,” Lopes said. “It’s heavy, expensive and can go to better things. It can be recycled and used to make animal feed and even energy. We set aside $15 million in bonding to do all these pilot programs, and hopefully we get some data back. From there, we will look to see what can be implemented on a larger scale.”
Piles of tires are illegal dumped in the Parkville area of Hartford. (Courtesy of Hartford Police Department)
Closing loophole on tires
Connecticut became the first state to pass an extended producer responsibility bill for tires last legislative session. The bill, HB 6486, requires manufacturers of tires sold in Connecticut to join or create a state-supervised industry stewardship program responsible for collecting and recycling used or discarded tires.
Consumers can bring their tires they purchase back to the manufacturer once they need to discard them. The cost is baked into the point of sale upon purchase, according to officials. In addition, manufacturers would be required to finance, operate and report to the state on the post-consumer management of their tire products. Connecticut’s first EPR law, for electronic waste or “e-waste,” was passed in 2007.
The hope is that the bill curbs the illegal dumping of tires, as thousands are illegally disposed of in the state’s forests and improperly placed in dumpsters each year. But environmental advocates quickly pointed out a flaw in the bill. Retailers were exempt from the same stewardship program than manufactures, leaving a major loophole in the legislation.
Currently, after replacing a customer’s tire, Connecticut retailers and repair shops charge a tire recycling fee, which is intended to cover the cost of recycling or disposal. While most retailers do properly dispose of discarded tires, some have been found to be illegally dumping them, collecting the fee and not paying for their proper disposal.
“I think we’re going to have a bill where there is going to be a handling fee for retailers, much like the handling fee redemption centers have with the bottling bill,” said State Rep. Joseph Gresko, D-Stratford, the former chair and member of the environment committee. “The stewardship group is informed and submitted the proposal with DEEP. We just need retail to come on board. I think this solves that problem. I’ve had meetings with the Republican minority leader on this, and I’m sure we will have the votes this session.”
A bottle handling fee is a small payment added to beverage costs in deposit-return states that is paid by distributors to retailers or redemption centers for collecting and sorting empty containers. The fee helps offset costs and encourages recycling.
“EPR programs are a very important part to solving illegal dumping in the state,” Gresko said. “We have done similar programs for smoke detectors and batteries. This session I am confident we will close the loophole on tires and get retail on board.”
Regulating balloons
Under Connecticut law, a person may release up to 10 helium-filled balloons in a 24-hour period. But critics say that the law is not widely known and not enforced. In addition, critics argue the law does little to stem balloon debris ending up in the Long Island Sound or the state’s other waterways.
According to animal rights advocates, balloons can be harmful to birds and marine life, such as fish and turtles, who can mistake the balloon debris for food and get entangled in ribbons. Sea turtles and other marine animals often confuse burst balloons floating in the water for jellyfish.
A bill introduced last year in the legislature, SB 1154, would have prohibited the sale of non-biodegradable helium and lighter-than-air gas balloons, but it failed to pass. That bill would have allowed for biodegradable lighter-than-air gas balloons made with non-latex material to be more environmentally friendly. Balloons made from biodegradable materials are supposed to take about 12 weeks to break down.
“We have been working with the retail association and the balloon industry all summer long to study what legislation would work best to remove lighter-than-air balloons from the environment,” Lopes said. “We are hoping to get the results of the study before session in order to propose legislation.”
Gresko, who co-sponsored the bill last session, said he is in support of new legislation this session.
“You can still have balloons, we’re not banning them, but we are going to look at restricting lighter-than-air balloons that produce litter and cause problems for wildlife,” Gresko said.
The cans and bottles were turned in at a local redemption center. The dime return on each can and bottle adds up. (Hartford Courant file)
Fines for bottle redemption misuse
Connecticut is one of 10 states in the U.S. that are “bottle bill” states. “Bottle bills,” also known as container redemption programs, work by charging a small deposit on a container at the time of purchase, which is then returned to the consumer when the empty bottle is returned.
In 2021, Gov. Lamont signed SB 1037 into state law, expanding the scope of containers collected and also increasing the refund value from 5 cents to 10 cents to boost consumer participation and keep up with inflation. The bill was the first major update to Connecticut’s “bottle bill” since its implementation in 1978, according to officials.
On Jan. 1, 2024, bottle deposit redemption rates increased to 10 cents. Now lawmakers believe that a major uptick in bottle returns is most likely being caused by out-of-state traffickers hauling in truckloads of bottles to be returned. Under state law, only Connecticut residents can return bottles purchased in-state. Recently, a new law aimed at restricting out-of-state returns, requiring residents to prove residency for large returns at redemption centers and limiting daily returns to 5,000 containers to combat fraud was signed
“We got truckloads of bottles coming from out of state into Connecticut,” Lopes said. “It’s a growing problem, and I think we need to have a discussion on increasing some of the penalties. There’s some legal issues that need to be sorted out about imposing fines. But this is something we need to be looking at addressing with some tougher penalties.”
The bottle return rate in Connecticut reached 77% during the end of 2024, the highest it has been since its inception in 1978, according to officials. Lawmakers say that out-of-state bottle returns are most likely driving up that number, but it’s nearly impossible right now to tell how many bottles are being trafficked in from out of state, Lopes said.
“We realize this is a growing problem and we’re looking to address it,” Gresko said. “We took the first step in requiring proof of residency for large returns. Now we need to go a step further in increasing penalties for those that abuse the system.”
Stephen Underwood can be reached at sunderwood@courant.com.
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