Walk
If Iowans desire to continue the 5 cent bottle/can redemption, the law needs to be workable and the law needs to be fair. All parties need to have some skin in the game; wholesalers, retailers, the State of Iowa and the general public.
Iowa would need to set up a new oversight agency, let’s name this agency the Iowa Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA). This agency would oversee and have authority to enforce the “new bottle bill.” This agency would need some strong teeth for enforcement.
Wholesalers and retailers would no longer physically redeem bottles and cans. The IEPA would set up “territories” where one company per territory would be responsible for collecting all cans and bottles from “independent redemption centers.” This company would run “routes” for collection as needed.
Here is how the program works: the wholesaler sells product to the retailer and collects 6 cents from the retailer for each beverage container, including water bottles, tea beverages and the like. Each week, the wholesaler submits electronically to the IEPA 7 cents for aluminum cans and plastic, 8 cents for glass containers; the 5 cents from the public, 1 cent from the retailer and 1 cent from the wholesaler for cans and plastic, 2 cents for glass. The wholesaler and retailer should be happy to pay the penny for discontinuing to handle the redemptions.
The public returns cans/bottles to a redemption center. The redemption center no longer has to sort cans/bottles by distributor. The redemption center pays the public 4 ½ cents per plastic and aluminum containers, thus the public also has skin in the game. The redemption center pays the consumer only 4 cents per glass container since glass containers are labor intensive.
