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(Des Moines, IA) -- The bottle bill passes through the Iowa House.
The Iowa House passes an amended version of SF 2378 by a vote of 73-17. The amended bill would give Iowa's redemption centers and retailers their first raise since 1978.
"This increases the handling fee that distributors pay from 1-cent to 3-cents for redemption centers and retailers who continue to take back returns," says State Representative Brian Lohse.
The bill allows retailers to opt-out of the service if they are within 20 miles of a redemption center, or place a mobile receptacle on their property.
Retailers that decide to opt-out of accepting redemptions will be required to notify its shoppers, and post where the nearest redemption center is.
State Representative Mary Mascher says the bill is a great compromise for Iowa's distributors, redemption centers, and retailers, but says bill leaves out rural Iowans who return bottle and cans.
"I've heard a great deal of debate about what the grocers want. I've heard a great deal of debate about what the distributors want. I've heard a great deal of debate about what the redemption centers want," says Mascher. "What I have not heard is what the consumers want. Those are the people we should be listening to today. They're the ones that will be most impacted by this legislation."
Lohse says the number of redemption centers in Iowa are dwindling, and have been falling even before the COVID-19 pandemic.
"This bill is the House's attempt address [the law's] issues and to modify the bottle deposit law to make the system sustainable for consumers into the future," says Lohse.
The bill also requires the state to hire an agency to look into the efficiency of the bottle deposit law and determine the efficiency of Iowa's redemption centers.
"84% of Iowans love this bill, or they say the love the bottle deposit law, but the information that we have, which is anecdotal at best, would suggest that only 10% of bottle and cans are being redeemed," says Lohse. "Our bill would provide a way to get more concrete information that would allow us to access that information. If 84% of Iowans are redeeming, then that's great, but we'll be able to find if that number is increasing over time to find out how the bottle deposit law is holding up."
Two weeks after the Senate passed their version of the bottle bill, the House amends the bill to get bi-partisan support.
House Democrat Molly Donahue is one of the minority party members in favor of the bill; however, she says the Iowa Legislature needs to revisit the bottle deposit law in future session to increase the convenience for consumers.
"There are some good things in this bill, but we need to make sure that this isn't the end," says Donahue. "That this is just keeping the bottle bill alive, and that we come back and revisit this do to better for the people."
Since the Senate's bottle bill is now amended, it moves back over to the Iowa Senate for a vote before finding the desk of Governor Kim Reynolds.