KIMT News 3
Iowa's Bottle Bill Blues
by Cole Mathisen
Grafton, IA- A bill in the Iowa legislature to up the price for bottle deposits is getting more attention. Lieutenant Governor Patty Judge is putting pressure on lawmakers to pass the bottle bill.
It expands on the current $.05 deposit to cover containers like juice and water bottles. Judge says the law makes sense for the economy and the environment.
From an outsiders perspective adding more bottles to recycling centers and keeping them out of landfills is a no-brainer. For workers sorting through all those extra bottles, the idea has them in the dumps.
Jeff Jessen owns and operates J-Mart in Grafton. Like all grocery stores in Iowa he's legally required to accept bottles and cans for redemption. He says sorting them can be down right disgusting.
"I've found numerous things in there that should not be, insects, living, dead, lots of them, car parts, used diapers," he said.
Jessen is currently sorting 15 different types of containers according to distributor. If the bottle bill passes, that number could more than double.
"I don't know where I'm going to sort all the stuff, put all the stuff and how it's gonna all work, because what you're essentially doing is forcing me to take society's garbage," he said.
In places like Grafton where small stores are serving a small community, the added cost of labor spent on sorting the bottles can become overwhelming.
"There's really a lot of labor and a lot of man power and a lot of time invested in this process, for very little gain if any," Jessen said.
There's also a sanitation issue. Jeff is forced to store cans and bottles wherever he can find room in his store. That means packing them in close to where fresh food is kept on shelves.
If they're expanding the bottle bill, he's hoping the Iowa legislature goes to a curbside collection system for bottles. He says that's the easiest solution to the problem.
"That's the only way out, on the curb with your newspapers and your other products,” he said.
Jessen says he gets added bottles when people from Grafton shop in bigger cities and bring the containers back to his store for redemption. He's even resorted to storing them in his own garage.
Just a couple weeks ago some area students went to Des Moines to show support for Governor Culver's bottle bill. Culver hopes the bill will help Iowa’s redemption centers.
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