Opinion : Is it time to End the "Bottle Bill"?

The “bottle bill,” became law in 1978 creating a 5¢ deposit on some bottles and cans of soda at the store. You can get have your nickel returned, when you return it to a redemption center...if you can find one. 

In 2022, the law changed so that retailers selling these containers no longer had to redeem them. At last count, 26 counties don't have any redemption available, and Benton County is one of those.  An article cites Cleaner Iowa’s poll saying that 64% of Iowa voters said it became more difficult to return them since the 2022 law. 

The owner of the Can Shed, Troy Willard, has been redeeming cans for 30 years and said that “polls upon polls” shows support for the program. Of course, a guy who's in the business would say that. I would bet a nickel that the whole "polls upon polls" is made up because that would be good for his business. 

A bill that advanced from a House subcommittee last week, would amend the state’s bottle bill to increase the number of redeemable containers to include non-carbonated drinks. Probably your water bottles, tea, you name it. So now your grocery bill will include another chunk for deposits and the clutter at home increases until you take a road trip to get rid of the cans...costing more than the cans are worth. Of course, your grocery bill goes up. 

Evan Burger, co-owner of Ames Bottle and Can said, “It’s confusing to the customer when you’ve got two Celsius cans and one of them has five cents and one doesn’t, same material, same everything,” Burger said. “This is an easy, small solution to make the system work a little bit better.” House Study Bill 661 introduced by Rep. Devon Wood, R-New Market, said, “In my opinion, it should be the same can, same thing.”

Grocery stores and convenience stores registered against the bill. Brad Epperly, of the Iowa Grocery Industry Association, said expanding to additional containers would “add a tax” to Iowans since most do not participate in the redemption process. He's not wrong.

According to an AI search, "In Iowa, millions of cans go unredeemed each year, with estimates suggesting that consumers lose around $40 million on unreturned deposits. The unclaimed deposits are kept by beverage distributors, as the state does not track the exact amount that goes unreturned."

In other words, not returning your cans and bottles, like I don't, only benefits the beverage makers to the tune of $40 million. And the government wants to increase this amount. I'll get all conspiratorial here and ask, "Who's getting a political donation from the beverage companies?"

I say end it all. In the 70s, we didn't have recycling cans that could collect these, now we do. Everyone has a recycling bin, but now we have no way to get our nickels back. Seems logical, so of course the government won't see that...

Your thoughts? Should Iowa increase the number of cans and bottles requiring a deposit or end the deposit program completely?