October 5, 2011
Dubuque TH
Jochum: Recycling Plan Will Start the Discussion
The Iowa Lawmaker says efforts
to expand the bottle deposit law
have failed, but experts doubt a
statewide recycling program
would have much success
Sen. Pam Jochum described her bill to replace
Iowa's nickel deposit law vvith a state-
wide recycling program as a conversation
starter.
Attendees of the Iowa Recycling and Solid Waste Management Conference in Dubuque obviously listened Tuesday. Jochum's contention that statewide single-stream recycling would achieve the same collection rate was met vvith shouts of "no way" from throughout the gallery.
Statistics show bottle deposit laws are overwhelmingly more successful than other attempts to keep beverage containers out of the landfill. In Iowa, the redemption rate is 86 percent. Nationvvide, states with redemption laws recycle about 60 percent of their beverage containers, while nondeposit states recover about 24 percent.
Jochum, D-Dubuque, said the bill she offered in the Senate was to counter a bill in the House that attempted to eliminate the bottle deposit law without any mechanism to recover those bottles.
"I found that rather irresponsible," Jochum said. "The bottle deposit law has been the Holy Grail in Iowa for the past 33 years. So why would I even introduce such a bill?"
Jochum explained efforts to expand the bottle deposit law have failed. In 2008, then-Gov. Chet Culver's effort to expand the bottle bill to include other containers failed. It also would have increased the handling fee to help redemption centers meet their costs. Attempts to raise the deposit from five cents to 10 have met failure. Culver's mere mention of raising the deposit created fierce opposition.
"I'm telling you, I thought our phone system and email system was about to collapse," Jochum said. "It was pretty phenomenal. So we're stuck."
Jochum said redemption centers will soon face the decision of giving up because the one-cent handling fee can't cover their costs, and the state will be faced with making a decision very quickly on how to proceed.
"There have been no changes in 33 years," Jochum said. "We can't get movement."
Jochum said public support for the deposit law has slowly ebbed since 1998, according to surveys conducted by the University of Northern Iowa, Support for expanding it to include other containers is lower yet, while increasing the deposit to 10 cents is least popular of all the options, with 68 percent opposed in 2004. At the same time, increasing curbside recycling is seeing greater support, Jochum doesn't pretend to have all of the answers and said the legislative process often takes years before a bill reaches a vote. She said a number of funding options could be used to start statewide recycling, but she realizes the bill in its original form was not popular. It phases in universal single-stream recycling beginning with single family, then multi-family, "What I was hearing is that people simply dldn' have the tax base for even startup costs" Jochum said. "So we have tried to address that issue ti1fough grants and low interest loans"
The Container Recycling Institute is a powerful voice in favor of strengthening container deposit bills. Susan Collins, executive director, said it has taken Massachusetts eight years to build momentum to expan its bottle bill. A bill that now has 80 co-sponsors.
"The state conducted a study which showed municipalities would save money on the recycling side, on the waste side and on the litter cleanup side," Collins said, "Overall, they found that each municipality in Massachusetts would save $5 million to $10 million per year if the container deposit law was expanded."
Collins said powerful lobbying groups, such as grocers and packaging manufacturers, have long fought against deposit laws.
Jochum said she wasn't sure if that were true in Iowa, but she does know the state has two systems and wonders if focusing on a single solution might be more effective.
"Again, it's a matter of whether or not we can continue with the bottle deposit law the way it is currently structured without getting any changes in there, and we have not been able to do that," Jochum said.
