Bottles, cans, money and the environment

After listening to The Gazette’s Pints and Politics session about Iowa’s Bottle Bill, it was surprising to learn that $48 million in unclaimed deposits on cans and bottles goes to beverage distributors, not the Iowa treasury. The Iowa Wholesale Beer Distributors Association claims that 200 jobs will be lost if they don’t continue to get our deposit money. Since the IWBDA is a 501c3 nonprofit with only two employees, apparently these millions of dollars provide salaries for the for-profit distributors, at $240,000 per employee. It would be instructive to see their job descriptions.

Legislators have proposed a network of redemption centers every 15 to 20 miles throughout the state. Just a 20-mile round trip would typically burn one gallon of gas. At $3.50 a gallon, the average Iowan would need to redeem 70 cans and bottles just to cover fuel costs, not to mention the time involved and the vehicle’s emissions. Requiring stores selling the beverages to also handle redemptions makes infinitely more sense.

At a nickel for each deposit, $48 million equates to 960,000,000 unredeemed bottles and cans, an incredible environmental impact. Other states do much better. In Michigan, for example, where the deposit is 10 cents, the redemption rate is 70 percent. Are Michigan's legislators that much smarter than Iowa's or are they less influenced by lobbyists?

Adding a proposed advisory group to set a 5-year plan and require annual reports seems long overdue. Iowans deserve more responsible leadership on this important issue.

Tom and Joan Cook

Iowa City