February 1, 2008

Businesses speak out about bottle bill proposal
By Rebecca Boysen

CLINTON — Iowa Gov. Chet Culver is backing off his proposed bottle bill, a plan that would have doubled the bottle deposit to 10 cents.

Under that 10-cent plan, consumers returning containers would receive 8 cents back, a penny would go to the state's Resource Enhancement and Protection Program and the remaining cent would go to increase the handling fee to area redemption centers and retailers. The plan also calls for the types of containers covered under the bill to be increased to include bottled water, sports drinks and flavored teas.

Culver's announcement came Thursday after legislative leaders gave the bill a grim forecast.

While several area businesses are happy with the announcement, most agree something must be done to change the current deposit policy.

“I don’t have the answers either, but I don’t like it the way it is,” said Scott Lange, grocery manager at Fareway grocery store in Clinton.

Lange fears an increase in deposit would push area consumers into Illinois.

“I think it’s an unfair tax on the people in the state of Iowa,” Lange said. “We saw it a lot with the cigarette tax. When they put the $10-a-carton cigarette tax on, they pushed everybody across the river.”

Joe Strunk, owner of the Main Avenue Redemption Center, 1621 Main Ave., feels Iowans are already being taxed to the limit, and doubling the deposit to 10 cents is far too big an increase.

“They want to charge a dime for a deposit, they want to take a penny for (redeemers) to do the work. Then the state wants a penny. One cent out of 10 is 10 percent,” Strunk said. “I absolutely cannot see them putting a 10 percent tax on these containers. We’re paying seven percent sales tax, we’re paying 20 percent income tax, and they want to put a 10 percent environmental tax?”

Strunk agrees that those who handle the container redemptions, such as he does, are due for an increase, but he feels increasing the deposit to six cents is a far better option.

“We do need an increase. There’s been no increase, as far as the people that do the redeeming, (since) the bottle first was originated,” Strunk said. “We do need that penny that they’re talking about, but all they have to do is just make the deposit six cents, and give (redeemers) the penny. Get rid of the dime, we’ll redeem the nickel, it’ll cost you six cents, it’ll cost you a penny for our processing. And that would be the end of it. It would be that simple.”

State Representative Polly Bukta, D-Clinton, feels the solution could be as simple as increasing recycling efforts.

“When (the original bottle bill) was written, we didn’t have all these water bottles and juice bottles and so on,” Bukta said. “I would like to see something done with those other types of containers that are not now recycled. I would like to see all that we use be recycled, instead of filling the landfills the way we are. Something needs to be done, but I”m not sure that the way it has been proposed is the right way to go.”

Lange agrees, wishing that more citizens would take advantage of the local recycling programs already in place.

“We’d like to see everybody go to curbside recycling,” Lange said. “Clinton is one of the communities that has that available. Plastic bottles should be going in that anyway.”

The Associated Press contributed to this article.