Des Moines, Iowa — Another proposal to alter the state’s “bottle bill” has emerged in the Iowa Senate. For decades, legislators have debated making changes in the system that charges a deposit fee on bottles and cans of alcohol and carbonated beverages. For years, the stores that sell those beverages have objected to being the place customers go with their empties to get their nickels back.
Pam Mackey-Taylor, a lobbyist for the Iowa chapter of the Sierra Club, says the group opposes major changes.
But a bill that got its first hearing at the statehouse last week would let grocery stores and convenience stores exit the redemption business. Brad Epperly, a lobbyist for the Iowa Grocery Industry, says retailers spend a lot to process the empties.
The proposal a panel of three senators reviewed would raise the fee paid to recycling or “redemption” centers from one penny to two pennies out of the five cent deposit on each can. Troy Willard owns the “Can Shed” with locations in Cedar Rapids and Iowa City. He says that increase in the handling fee is badly needed.
The businesses that bottle and distribute the soda and beer also say the current system is unfair, but they oppose the bill. Senator Mark Segebart of Vail says going 40 years without making improvements to the “bottle bill” makes no sense.
Segebart, gesturing with a nearly empty can of soda, told the crowd at the hearing there will be adjustments in his bill. And groups involved in this decades-long debate over the “bottle bill’s” fate say they’re working to develop other alternatives, too.
