Statewide Iowa — By an overwhelming margin of 73-to-17, the Iowa House has voted to make changes in Iowa’s popular Bottle Bill.
The Senate passed similar, but not identical legislation last month. Representative Brian Lohse of Bondurant says it’s a watershed moment for the law that assesses a nickel deposit on containers of beer and pop, to encourage customers to recycle the empties and get their nickels back.
The House and Senate now have both voted to let grocery stores quit accepting empty beer and pop containers and repaying deposits, but the House has added a new twist. Any grocery store that continues to serve as a redemption site would be paid a handling fee of three cents per container. That’s the new rate redemption centers in the business of just handling empty containers would get, too. Lohse says it makes sense to reward grocery stores that would keep paying back customers’ deposits.
The House-passed plan has a reporting mechanism to try to figure out the amount of unpaid deposits wholesale distributors of beer are keeping, but that’s not included in the bill the Senate passed in late March. Any changes in Iowa’s bottle and can deposit law would have to pass the House and Senate in identical form before a bill would be sent to the governor.
