REP. ISENHART: A “bottle bill” that works for consumers, redemption centers and the environment

In 1978, the Legislature created a private system now marked by a lack of accountability, a dearth of transparency and a deficit of compliance. This has resulted in a decline in success, fostered by an ossified General Assembly unable to make changes as retailers and distributors throw up roadblocks to any proposed reform.”

House File 2440 would recreate Iowa’s bottle bill system by:

·      * Expanding the 5 cent deposit to most individual use beverage containers;

·      * Increasing reimbursement to redemption centers to 3 cents per container;

·      * Assessing manufacturers ½ cent per container;

·      * Assessing distributors ½ cent per container;

·      * Assessing retailers ½ cent per container;

·      * Prohibiting retailers or their agents from directly providing redemption services;

·      * Granting compliance and enforcement tools to the Alcoholic Beverages Division, taking the Department of Natural Resources and local law enforcement out of the picture;

·      * Authorizing the Alcoholic Beverages Division to use any funds not needed for bottle and can redemption to provide grants to expand redemption capacity in underserved areas or to support non-profit organizations engaging in litter collection in public areas.

The bill offers every stakeholder what they want or what they need to successfully fulfill their roles within the system, making redemption businesses profitable again so they can expand, enabling maximum consumer convenience, diverting solid waste from landfills, allowing for more comprehensive recycling, and cleaning up our environment again. Notably, retailers will no longer have to accept returns; in fact, the bill prohibits it.

By returning profitability to redemption centers, we can reverse the decline that has seen the number of independent places that people can take their cans and bottles for deposit shrink from a high of 213 statewide to just 123 today. Of those, only 88 are approved to accept bottles and cans on behalf of retailers. That approval requires the centers to have minimum service hours and be in within easy driving distance to the stores they serve, but they can’t afford to meet those requirements.

A 2015 report by a legislative interim committee on recycling policy “unanimously voted to recommend to the General Assembly that a small working group composed of only legislators” be convened to address recycling policy, including the bottles and cans, because it was clear that the various players did not agree and would not work together. Nothing about that has really changed since I started working this issue in 2016 as ranking member of the Environmental Protection Committee. Elected officials need to start making decisions in the public interest for the common good.

Independent polling since 2015 has consistently shown broad public support for Iowa’s beverage container control program. The Des Moines Register’s Iowa Poll found in 2018 that majorities of every major demographic group wanted the bottle bill maintained or expanded. The newspaper’s survey found that “majorities of Republicans (53 percent) and Democrats (60 percent) favor either keeping the law the way it is or expanding it,” along with 61 percent of political independents.

A 2017 poll by Selzer and Company found that “the current law wins almost universal support. Nearly nine in ten active Iowa voters (88%) say the bottle bill has been good for the state.

Per IowaBottleBill.com: “Nearly four in five support keeping the law in some form; if anything, voters are open to expansion. Every demographic group identified favors keeping or expanding the law by strong majorities, including:

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources conducts “waste characterization studies” every five years to determine what types of solid waste is landfilled in Iowa. Through that study, along with beverage sales data from the Container Recycling Institute, the DNR is able to determine the “recovery rate” for bottles and cans in the state.

The most recent study in 2018 determined the recovery rate for containers covered under the bottle deposit law is 71 percent, including 69 percent for aluminum, 60 percent for plastic, and 83 percent for glass.

Bottom line, by creating a more robust system — fueled by greater resources and more participants — those numbers will return to historic highs and for more types of containers. We and Mother Nature will all be better off as a result.