(Des Moines, IA) — The Iowa House overwhelmingly passed a bill to make changes in the state’s popular bottle deposit law. The Senate passed similar, but not identical legislation last month. Representative Brian Lohse of Bondurant says it’s a watershed moment for the law that assesses a nickel deposit on containers of beer and pop, to encourage customers to recycle the empties and get their nickels back. The House and Senate now have both voted to let grocery stores quit accepting empty beer and pop containers and repaying deposits, but the House has added a new twist — any grocery store that continues to serve as a redemption site would be paid a handling fee of three cents per container. That’s the new rate redemption centers in the business of just handling empty containers would get, too.
