§ 1521. Definitions
As used in this chapter:
(1) “Beverage” means beer or other malt beverages and mineral waters, mixed wine drink, soda water, and carbonated soft drinks in liquid form and intended for human consumption. “Beverage” also means liquor and ready-to-drink spirits beverage.
(2) [Repealed.]
(3) “Container” means the individual and separate bottle, can, or jar composed of glass, aluminum or other metal, polyethylene terephthalate, high density polyethylene, or any combination of those materials, and containing a beverage. This definition does not include beverage containers with a volume greater than three liters.
(4) “Dealer” means any person, including any operator of a vending machine or retailer, who engages in the sale of beverages in beverage containers to consumers in the State.
(5) “Deposit initiator” means the first distributor or manufacturer to collect the deposit on a beverage container sold to any person within the State. If no person initiates a deposit, the first distributor in the State shall be the deposit initiator.
(6) “Distributor” means every person who engages in the sale of beverages in containers to a dealer in this State, including any manufacturer who engages in such sales. Any dealer who sells, at the retail level, beverages in containers without having purchased them from a person otherwise classified as a distributor is a distributor.
(7) “Fair compensation” means the compensation from the producer responsibility organization to the point of redemption in the amount that covers the point of redemption’s reasonable costs of operating redemption services and a reasonable rate of return.
(8) “Manufacturer” means every person bottling, canning, packing, or otherwise filling containers for sale to distributors or dealers.
(9) “Mixed wine drink” means a beverage containing wine and more than 15 percent added plain, carbonated, or sparkling water and that contains added natural or artificial blended material, such as fruit juices, flavors, flavoring, adjuncts, coloring, or preservatives; a beverage that contains not more than 16 percent alcohol by volume; or another similar product marketed as a wine cooler.
(10) “Point of redemption” means a location included in the plan adopted under section 1532 of this title that redeems beverage containers under this chapter. A point of redemption includes manually sorting containers, mechanically sorting containers, and bag drops.
(11) “Point of redemption with immediate return of deposit” means a point of redemption that immediately provides a person with a deposit when a beverage container is presented for redemption.
(12) “Recycling” means the process of sorting, cleansing, treating, and reconstituting waste and other discarded materials for the purpose of reusing the materials in the same or altered form.
(13) “Redemption center” means a store or other location where any person may, during normal business hours, redeem the amount of the deposit for any empty beverage container labeled or certified pursuant to section 1524 of this title.
(14) “Redemption rate” means the number of beverage containers redeemed for the deposit divided by the number of beverage containers sold and may not include in its calculation any unredeemed beverage containers collected or processed by municipal or other recycling programs.
(15) “Retailer” means a store or other licensed entity, including vending machines, where containers are sold at the retail level for off-premise consumption.
(16) “Secretary” means the Secretary of Natural Resources.
(17) “Liquor” means spirits as defined in 7 V.S.A. § 2. (Added 1971, No. 252 (Adj. Sess.), § 1; amended 1975, No. 105, § 1; 1983, No. 171 (Adj. Sess.), § 2; 1987, No. 76, § 18; 1987, No. 261 (Adj. Sess.), §§ 1, 2, eff. July 1, 1989; 2005, No. 128 (Adj. Sess.), § 1; 2021, No. 177 (Adj. Sess.), § 35, eff. July 1, 2022; 2025, No. 158 (Adj. Sess.), § 1, eff. July 1, 2026.)