Iowa’s bottle bill faces do-or-die year, key lawmakers warn

DES MOINES — Key lawmakers warned Monday that if the Iowa Legislature can’t fix the four-decade-old “bottle bill” this year, the recycling program for beverage containers might be repealed.

“That's not a plan, but there is a growing number of legislators who have just expressed that this isn't working,” said Sen. Jason Schultz, R-Schleswig, said Monday.

Rep. Brian Lohse, R-Bondurant, who is managing a House File 2571, scheduled for House debate Tuesday, acknowledged that Schultz’s comments “reflect the frustration we have all felt in the many years we have been working to find solutions, only for the work to fall apart and result in no resolution.”

Lohse also agreed the lack of progress over several years “seems to leave only one option — if we can't get it fixed, the only remaining option it to end it,” he said.

Although Senate File 2378, which was approved on a mostly party-line vote, is the most progress yet on legislation making changes to the bottle bill, it’s not without critics.

While it would not repeal Iowa’s nickel deposit on beer and carbonated soft drink cans and bottles, it is “effectively a repeal of convenience” for consumers, Susan Collins of the Container Recycling Institute said on a call with reporters arranged by Cleaner Iowa. SF 2378 would give “corporate interests” what they’d like without improving recycling program for consumers.

One of those interests, the Iowa’s beer distributors, is working with lawmakers to find a “bipartisan, common-sense solution this year,” said David Adelman, executive director of the Iowa Beer Wholesalers Association.

Given the popularity of the bottle bill — 83 percent approval in a recent poll for Cleaner Iowa, distributors “will continue to be a part of system that has been woven into the fabric of Iowa and are committed to working with legislators to address their concerns,” he said.

The House version of the bill, while not ideal, is a better approach to updating the bottle bill, R.G. Schwarm, executive director of Cleaner Iowa, told reporters. It includes incentives for grocery and convenience stores to remain a part of the container redemption process and could spur the growth of redemption centers, he said.

Cleaner Iowa also likes the House language that would provide a five-year “runway” for redemption center development through a 1-cent per container fee retailers would pay. It would be waived if they also handle redemptions.

The Senate version of the bill would likely reduce the number of places for consumers to return their containers and claim their nickel deposits to fewer than 100 across Iowa, Collins said. At one time, she said, there were at least 1,600 convenience stores, 545 groceries and 60 redemption centers accepting empties.

SF 2378 would allow retailers to opt out of redeeming cans and bottles. Grocers have long complained that returning dirty containers to their stress creates health and safety issues. Schultz said retailers opting out would be offset by tripling the current 1-cent handling fee to encourage the creation of redemption centers.

Senate Democrats rejected the argument that SF 2378 would modernize and reform the bottle bill. It would be the beginning of the end of the bottle bill, they said. Without the convenience of redeeming containers at retail locations where they were purchased, consumers will be less likely to return containers, they said, resulting in throwing out the empties instead.

That would increase costs to local governments to accommodate the increase in garbage and recycling programs as well as increase litter, Collins said.

SF 2378 also lacks transparency, Collins said. Iowa is the only state that doesn’t require distributors to report sales and container returns to the state — and is the only state where distributors keep 100 percent of the unredeemed deposits. It’s estimated that amounts to between $44 and $48 million a year. Collins’ modeling shows a $30 million a year increase in unredeemed deposits if SF 2378 becomes law.

SF 2378 would codify that those unclaimed deposits are the property of the wholesalers — not the state, she added.

Iowa is also the only state with a container deposit law that hasn’t increased the handling fee in 43 years.

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