Bags of discarded nips collected from New Haven streets by environmental advocate Laura Cahn, displayed outside the aldermanic chamber at City Hall Thursday.
A Board of Alders committee unanimously backed a resolution Thursday night asking state lawmakers to let New Haven and other Connecticut cities and towns ban the sale of nips — the tiny liquor bottles that litter city streets, parks, and storm drains.
The City Services and Environmental Policy (CSEP) Committee voted 6–0 to send the resolution to the full Board of Alders. If the board approves it, the request goes to the state legislature and the governor.
“It’s a request for enabling legislation,” said Kathy Fay, who presented the resolution at City Hall with fellow environmental advocate Laura Cahn. “It’s not asking that the alders immediately move to banning in New Haven. It’s giving the alders that option, which they don’t have.”
The resolution would not ban nips in New Haven. Under state law, cities and towns can’t prohibit nip sales on their own. The resolution asks the Connecticut General Assembly to pass a law giving each municipality the option.
“We’re just trying to take a baby step,” Fay said.
Fay and Cahn, both former members of the city’s Environmental Advisory Council, first brought the proposal to the committee in May. Alders asked them to return with clearer language.
New Haven sells more nips than any other municipality in Connecticut — an average of about 4.4 million a year. Since 2021, the state has charged a 5-cent fee on each nip, with the money returned to the city or town where it was sold for litter cleanup. New Haven received about $242,000 from the fee in 2024–25.
Cahn said the fee can’t fix the problem. “No sin tax is ever going to get us out of this,” she told the committee.
On her way to Thursday’s meeting, Cahn said, it took her five minutes to pick up seven nips on a single block of Whalley Avenue outside Mitchell Library in Westville.
“I’m an environmental advocate, and what I care about is saving the planet,” Cahn said after the vote. “I’m sure that anyone who sells alcohol will find other containers to sell it in…. Nobody needs those.”
She said nips are too small to be recycled or reused, and that their lids are even harder to find. “Can you imagine the millions of nips that are lying around?” she said. “Because when I find them, most of the time, the lids are not there.”
Morris Cove Alder Leland Moore asked whether a local ban would actually work. His ward borders East Haven, which has many liquor stores, and he worried that people would simply buy nips there and dump them in the same New Haven parks. He asked whether a statewide restriction would be more effective.
Cahn said New Haven State Rep. Pat Dillon had raised the same concern. “I don’t know what the answer to that is,” she said. “I only know that this particular request is not going to result in the ban of a single nip.”
CSEP Committee Chair and East Rock Alder Anna Festa noted that the Board of Alders could also direct its state lobbyists to push for a statewide ban.
Wooster Square Alder Mandy Martinelli spoke in favor of the resolution. “This seems that it will give power back to the city of New Haven and other municipalities across the state,” she said.
No members of the public testified.
After the vote, Cahn said she felt “very optimistic.”
“I don’t know what’s gonna solve this problem,” she said, “but I’m glad that people care, I’m glad that people know it’s a problem, and I’m glad that there are people that want to find a solution.”
Discover more from InnerCity News
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
