Hardly a thorough review of the bottle deposit law
In 2022, the Iowa legislature made significant changes to the bottle deposit law, with the net result of making it much more difficult to redeem empty soda and alcohol containers. As part of the changes, the legislature’s Fiscal Review Committee was told to evaluate the program in the months before the 2026 legislature began.
We are all familiar with the bottle deposit law, when we pay a nickel deposit on each container at the store and then get our nickels back when we return the empties. The 2022 changes made redeeming the empties significantly more difficult by allowing grocery stores and convenience stores to opt out of accepting the empties if they have a food establishment license, if they have a certified food protection manager, and if they sell time and temperature-controlled food. Additionally, the store is not required to redeem empty containers if there is a redemption center within 15 miles away if the county’s population is 30,000 or less or within 10 miles for counties with more than 30,000 residents.
After dragging his feet during the legislature’s recess in 2025, Senator Tim Kraayenbrink, the chair, finally scheduled the Fiscal Review Committee for the first day of the legislative session. The review of the bottle deposit law lasted about 30 minutes. In summary, the results were:
Attorney General Brenna Bird has done absolutely no enforcement of the law, even though businesses across the state are not complying with the law.
The Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has been receiving complaints from the public. They call the companies that are the subject of the complaint and attempt to coach them to comply with the law.
The DNR has done absolutely no enforcement.
One of the flagrant violators was discussed – Dollar General. The DNR staff indicated that they had conversations over the phone with management of Dollar General over the last two years. In spite of continued non-compliance, the DNR has not begun any enforcement action. After Senator Tony Bisignano kept pressing the DNR about their lack of enforcement, the DNR staff admitted that they had not even sent Dollar General a letter laying out the requirements of the Iowa law.
The DNR did not analyze the effectiveness of the changes in the bottle bill or how it has affected customers.
Nobody from the public was offered a chance to speak.
All of the Democrats (Sen. Tony Bisignano, Sen Janet Petersen, Rep. David Jacoby, Rep. Megan Srinivas) on the committee asked detailed questions and made comments. All of the Democrats expressed concern about the current state of the bottle deposit law, the lack of enforcement of the law, and the lack of places to redeem the empty containers.
Only two Republicans (Sen. Tim Kraayenbrink and Rep. Gary Mohr) made comments - which were in favor of keeping the law as it is.
The rest of the Republicans (Sen. Dan Dawson, Sen. Dan Zumbach, Rep. Shannon Latham, Rep. Carter Nordman) asked no questions and made no comments.
A final report will be available by the end of the month.
In conclusion, the committee’s evaluation of the bottle deposit law was disappointing. It is unfortunate, since the changes to the law have made it significantly more difficult to redeem empty bottles since there are fewer locations to redeem the bottles, the number of redemption centers have not increased to make up the difference, many of the redemption centers are not open at convenient times for consumers, and redemption centers are not conveniently located.
The Sierra Club will continue to monitor legislation affecting the bottle deposit law.
