Statewide Iowa (RI) — Backers of Iowa’s 47-year-old “Bottle Bill” are urging Iowans to contact lawmakers about a lack of access to sites where they can redeem their nickel deposits on bottles and cans.
R.G. Schwarm is executive director of Cleaner Iowa, a group that paid to survey Iowans about the Bottle Bill.
The Bottle Bill was changed in 2022, removing the requirement that retailers who sell beverages and collect the nickel deposits must pay consumers who return the empties.
According to Schwarm, there’s been an 80 percent reduction in the number of redemption sites in the state since the law took effect. There’s no pending legislation to change the redemption system, but there was a bill to expand the nickel deposit fee to cans containing non-carbonated beverages, like energy drinks. That bill failed to clear a House committee today and is dead for the year.
