For years, Rep. Mary Mushinsky has been trying to get nips — the tiny alcohol bottles — off Connecticut streets and out of its waterways. After previous attempts failed to pass, she this year plans to offer two plans when the legislative session opens Feb. 4.
“This one issue that is causing us great distress right now is the growth of nips in Connecticut. We know that our constituents — and there’s only 3.5 million of them — have consumed — and I still can’t believe this number is true — 90 million nips (per year) over a four-year period,” she said.
Mushinsky, a longtime champion of environmental issues and Wallingford Democrat, spoke at the Capitol Wednesday alongside advocates to call for either a statewide ban on the ubiquitous nips or adding them to the bottle return program. A similar bill was proposed in 2025.
That massive number and the proof that residents find littered in parks and along roads makes evident that Connecticut has both an alcohol problem and a pollution problem impacting communities and the Long Island Sound, where the bottles end up in large numbers, Mushinsky said.
Alex Rodriguez of Save The Sound said at that organization’s annual coastal cleanup, nips comprise a considerable amount of the trash.
“Our cleanup captains and staff and other volunteers picked up 9,977 small plastic pieces statewide in addition to 11,945 plastic bottle caps statewide. We estimate that at least a third of these plastic pieces collected were plastic bottle nips or glass bottle nips,” he said.
Banning nips would help protect the health of the Sound and the state’s wildlife as well as clean up Connecticut’s streets and parks, he said.
Tom Metzner, of CT Towns Nixing Nips, launched his campaign against nips in 2023 after discovering nips collected along the side of the road in Glastonbury a tenth of a mile from the high school. With no sidewalk in sight, Metzner said it’s clear that the single-use bottles were being consumed by drivers then thrown out car windows.
Tom Metzner of Glastonbury cleans up a collection of empty alcohol nip bottles at the connector of Hubbard Street and the New London Turnpike in Glastonbury in January of 2023.
In 2024 advocates sought to allow towns to choose individually whether to ban nips but the bill failed to gain support.
“Massachusetts towns can ban the sale of nips and have with good success. Connecticut towns cannot. So we’re simply asking that that situation be rectified …,” Metzner said.
“Chelsea, Mass., saw a significant decrease in alcohol-related EMT calls when they banned the sale of nips. Falmouth, Mass., saw a huge decrease in plastic litter when they banned the sale of nips. There’s only positive outcomes,” he said.
In 2021 the state created the Nickel Per Nips Program to help mitigate the environmental impact, adding a five cent fee per nip, the proceeds of which are distributed to towns to fund pickup and disposal of the bottles. In the past four years the program has raised $19 million, officials have said.
But the program has failed, Metzner said. The goal is “preventing these (nips) from going out the window and the only way to prevent it is to ban the sale.”
If an outright ban is not possible — the powerful wine and spirits lobby has opposed previous bills — Mushinsky said adding nips to the state’s bottle return program would give people a 10-cent incentive to return them rather than toss them on the side of the road. The automated machines that accept returns are currently not able to accept the bottles, though, creating a potential challenge.
Tom Metzner of Glastonbury cleans up a collection of empty alcohol nip bottles in January of 2023.
She has also not ruled out reintroducing the 2024 proposal to allow a town by town ban.
In 2024, the Connecticut Package Stores Association testified that a ban “would place a significant financial burden on stores” and would not solve litter problems, which are “not a product issue, but an issue of individual behavior. Similarly, banning nips will not prevent the consumption of alcohol by individuals in an irresponsible or dangerous manner, as the decision to do so is not driven by a product, but by a person’s willingness to engage in harmful behavior.”
Henry McNutly, of CT Nixing the Nips, said he and his wife have an annual tradition of picking up nips in their hometown of Cheshire as soon as the snow melts. Last year, within 20 minutes and a quarter mile, he said, they picked up 214 nips.
“Nips are made to be thrown out a car window. They are bought largely by — or they’re used by — underage drinkers or problem drinkers, people who don’t want to bring a big bottle home” so they buy little bottles and dispose of the evidence, which ends up in state waterways and break down into microplastics, McNulty said.
“It’s just way too easy to pick up nips and I hope this legislation will mean we have fewer and fewer to pick up in the future,” he said.
