May 12, 2008
Failed bottle bill means uncertainty for Can Farm
By Amy Erickson
 Kipp Plank, a five-year employee at the Can Farm, dumps aluminum cans into a bin to be sorted. Plank is one of eight employees at the redemption center, which faces a crunch after a new bottle bill failed. [Click to enlarge] |
Owners Mark and Cheryl Juhl may have to close their doors after 15 years of service.
"We don't know what we're going to do," Mark Juhl said. "We're going to take a look at everything and see if we can make it work."
For the past eight years the couple and others have been lobbying the legislature to increase the 1 cent per can or plastic or glass containers bottle handling fee to 2 cents. The law hasn't been changed since 1978.
"Each time it doesn't happen, it makes it harder on the customers," Cheryl said.
Costs like increases in minimum wage, gas and insurance throughout the years are making it even harder for the independent redemption center to keep up.
"The problem is the legislation," Mark said. "There's no way to run a business for 30 years at less income."
The Juhls serve Le Mars and have routes in 13 area towns where they collect and sort cans for beverage distributors. They collect about 100 cans a day year-round and for each one they get a one-penny kickback.
That's not enough.
"We work way too hard and way too many hours for what we make," Cheryl said.
Another aspect to the problem of less income is that some people will try to return items that don't have a redemption value and that also costs the Can Farm extra money and time.
"That becomes a big problem for us because we're not getting the nickel," Cheryl said.
Cheryl and Mark have gone to Des Moines to lobby for a change in the law because in the last three to four years it has become an "extremely serious issue."
So when the "bottle bill" failed again this legislative session, the Juhls said they don't know what their future is.
Right now they are in a holding pattern while they wait to find out how a $1 million grant set aside by lawmakers to help with improvements to independent redemption centers.
The law designates a maximum of $15,000 to any one center, but because there are about 100 of them throughout the state that means no one would get more than $10,000, Cheryl said.
Grant money won't help them with operating expenses, but could be used for improvements like s new roof for the Can Farm and a nicer, surfaced parking lot.
The grant money will become available July 1, but details as to applications, what criteria has to be met and how much will be distributed remains uncertain.
Bill Blum, program planner for the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, said those determinations are in the initial stages.
"The rules for the application process or evaluation is underway now," Blum said. "It's going to be through the summer before we can make this work the way it's supposed to and that's on the fast track."
If the Can Farm is forced to close its doors, the law states that grocery stores would have to go back to being redemption centers, said Dave Shaver, manager of Fareway.
That would be time consuming for his employees and customers, who would have to clean the items and return them to the store in packages rather than sacks, Shaver said.
"We're a food establishment and the state wants us to take back cans and bottles after they've been drank out of," Shaver said. "There is such a thing as cleanliness. But we will comply with what the law says."
It's debatable, the Juhls said, how much longer they can continue operations under the current law. They're not even certain they will be around next year to try lobbying again.
"At this point, I'm hanging on to what this (grant) does," Cheryl said. "It's just too bad because we do a service to the state of Iowa."
"And to the community," Mark added.
http://www.lemarssentinel.com/story/1401835.html
