March 8, 2010
Pair hope to jump-start can, bottle fee deposit proposal in Minnesota
They hope to boost recycling rates
Minnesota needs a push if it is to reach a 2012 goal of 80 percent recycling of beverage containers, said two young people who want a mandatory refund fee put on the containers.
"We wanted to do something in public policy and recycling," said Ben Olson, of Maple Grove, who with Sarah Heuer operates the Web site recyclingrefund.com.
An industry-led volunteer initiative isn't in the offing, he said. A second option is a mandatory deposit fee on beverage containers, which 11 other states do.
Heuer, of Fairmont, attended graduate school in Iowa, a state that has had mandatory deposit fees since the late 1970s.
"It has had popular support," Heuer said.
"We got interested in this whole campaign, this whole process, because our recycling rate for beverage containers is 35 percent," she said, "which doesn't seem like enough to us. They are so easily recyclable if you just do your part."
States with mandatory deposit fees have recycling rates in the high-70 percent to 90 percent, Heuer said.
Olson and Heuer are supporting a bill authored by Rep. Melissa Hortman, DFL-Brooklyn Park, that would levy a 10-cent deposit fee on beverage containers, refundable when the container is returned.
The bill covers beverage containers from soda and water bottles to beer containers to distilled spirits or wine bottles. A recycling refund value of not less than 10 cents would be placed on containers.
Unclaimed refunds would go into an environmental fund. Unclaimed refunds are estimated at $90 million a year at an 80 percent recycling rate, Olson said.
The bill, introduced a year ago, remains in the House Environment Policy and Oversight Committee. A companion bill, which has both Senate Taxes Committee Chairman Tom Bakk and Senate Majority Leader Larry Pogemiller as co-sponsors, lies in the Senate Environment and Natural Resources Committee.
The mandatory deposit fee "might be the only way to drastically increase our recycling rates," Heuer said.
Redemption centers could use automated reverse-vending machines, Olson said. Machines at grocery stores would count the bottles and cans, and receipts would be printed that consumers can bring into stores for cash or credit toward grocery purchases.
"You don't have to take the label off," Heuer said. "You can redeem it with the label on. They have to be clean, but not actually rinsed unless they are excessively dirty or sticky. It's actually pretty convenient."
An information hearing on the bill will be held in a couple of weeks, Heuer said. "This year we're just trying to build support across the board. We're not necessarily trying to push it through this year. We're surprised at the traction it has made already this year."
Associations representing the beverage industry are expected to fight the measure, Olson said.
The beverage industry was asked to come up with voluntary ways of reaching the 80 percent goal, "but there's been no progress made," Heuer said. "It seems like this is the way to do it."
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