Iowa City Today

What has taken lobbyists and lawmakers decades to achieve has only taken the novel coronavirus a few weeks to accomplish. 

For decades, lawmakers have been unable to lift the requirements for retailers and grocery stores to take back empty beverage containers, but Gov. Kim Reynolds has been forced to suspend the requirements, according to Quad-City Times.

Despite reservations from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) about the danger posed by returning the empty bottles, Reynolds said the exercise might stand in the way of the fight against the deadly virus.

Since 1979, the bottle bill has been a part of Iowan life, and it’s likely to impact businesses, especially if the suspension is extended.

Returning the empty beverage bottles was an encouragement to focus on recycling rather than littering. Customers would often pay a five-cent deposit when buying either alcohol or carbonated beverage and would be refunded the five-cent deposit when they return the empty bottle.

The move to suspend the return of empty bottles was supported by the Iowa Grocery Association, which through its president, Michelle Hurd, called for a permanent ban to container redemption.

Brad Epperly, a lobbyist, mentioned sanitation as the key to ending this exercise permanently in Iowa.

“And then you face something like we have now, and it encapsulates why we should rethink this,” he said.

With many of those supporting the bottle bill change doubting if the governor’s order will hold permanently, they are skeptical that the temporary suspension will open a window to debate the bill in the future.

Rep. Andy McKean was among the vocal representatives calling for a change in this bill.

"The tragedy of the situation is that I completely agree we want to get containers out of grocery stores,” he said. “I think we all want that. If we had been willing to increase the handling fee a few years ago, we would have redemption centers up and running.”

With the number of redemption centers dwindling across the state, the temporary suspension might end up being permanent.