A modern bottle bill serves all Iowans

The Iowa legislature is recycling not only bottles and cans but old arguments and even older, out-of-date solutions. Meanwhile, Iowans wait for a better bottle bill – 84 percent favor the law and want improvements and convenience.

Watching Iowa lawmakers discuss proposed container deposit bills is a bit like watching a moving target. Proposed bills pop up quickly and can dramatically change. Legislative observers say this is normal. But is it transparent? Does it serve the public? Or is it something else?

Lawmakers should take a courageous step and craft an effective bottle bill law for Iowa consumers – not those who profit from beverage sales. Dealers (grocers/retailers) and distributors are interested only in protecting their profits.

Iowa taxpayers don't pay for the self-funded bottle bill. It’s a simple process: Distributors charge dealers a 5-cent deposit fee for each container sold. In turn, dealers charge consumers a 5-cent deposit fee. When the consumer returns an empty container they are paid 5-cents by the dealer or redemption center. When the containers are returned to the distributor, the dealer or redemption center is paid 5-cents plus a 1-cent handling fee. The 1-cent handling fee is supposed to be their profit – but after 44-years it isn’t.

Distributors keep deposit fees from their initial sales that go unclaimed. Economists estimate that distributors have millions of dollars in those unclaimed deposits. Lawmakers should require distributors and dealers to submit monthly sales reports to have full disclosure.

Dealers aren’t playing by the rules either. If dealers can opt-out of redemption services it makes returning bottles and cans for deposits much more challenging for consumers, who may choose to recycle or landfill containers, instead of redeeming them. Driving the proposed 15-miles to redeem deposit fees is not only inconvenient, it's also costly for consumers – do the math.

A 3-cent handling fee paid to dealers and redemption centers will make redemption profitable and improve customer convenience. Convenience is the only incentive that consumers seek. Surveys prove consumers spend the value of their redeemed containers plus 50% more on in-store purchases at the time of redemption!

Lawmakers have proposed legislation that allows dealers to “opt-out” of redemption. If fees are improved to make the service profitable, dealers might choose to offer redemption for their customers.

Lawmakers also push recycling but there’s a big difference between redeemed and recycled materials. Recycling is good, but it’s an additional cost for communities, taxpayers and residents, and not all rural communities offer recycling programs.

Bottle bill states have high container-redemption rates that keep containers separated, which means the material is not contaminated by co-mingling and is, therefore, a higher quality than recycled material collected curbside. Without convenient redemption, consumers will landfill containers (as they did during the pandemic) eliminating them from the supply chain.

New containers require a virgin petroleum supply to manufacture – that’s why redemption is so important – to keep containers in the supply chain and avoid supply shortages predicted by 2023.

Iowa must do its part to be stewards of natural resources, protecting not only our state’s vitally important environment but also the global environment. We live in an interconnected world.

The League of Women Voters backed the original container deposit law. Over the years, the League has reviewed dozens of proposed bottle bills and offered many suggestions.

The bottle bill must be improved. A new bill should not exclusively benefit distributors or dealers who profit from beverage sales. Nor should a new bill punish consumers.

A better bill should address issues we face now and in the future. The best option for Iowans is to have access to convenient, modern redemption facilities where they shop. This requires lawmakers to improve the bottle bill, address the issues for all Iowans, not the selected few who profit.

Terese Grant is LWVIA president and Linda Schreiber is a LWVJC member and bottle bill advocate.