It saddens me to see some of the responses that have been posted stating that we as redemption center owners should just simply close. I can tell you that we did not decide to go into this business to be millionairs - we just wanted to be able to make an honest living and be a part of our community’s development. I truly believe that all of us do have a vested interest in the fact that we are contributing to one of the cleanest states in the nation, providing employment for thousands and without question we are doing our part as being environmentally conciencious. But, let’s roll play and say that we all close - where will you take your returns to? Depending on where you live, look around and see what your options are. The only places that come to my mind would be your grocery store and convenience store. At the grocery store, you would be required to feed them into a reverse vending machine and the convenience stores only take back 120 per day per customer. I would venture to say that you will be spending a great deal of your time at the grocery and convenience stores to get your refund back. On the other hand, redemption centers offer you a variety of options to best suit your own personal choice and we do give you a choice. Most allow you to bring in truck loads and do not impose any limit on the number you can return. Most allow you to put them on flats. Most allow you to leave your cans and come back to pick up your money or we can mail you a check. Yes, we do provide a service and yes we are convenient.

To those of you that have taken the posture of supporting us - I thank you. In my community, we have on going can drives(12 months of the year) with all the local Churches, Rotary, Boy Scouts, various Winterset school organizations, 4-H Club and the list goes on. These organizations depend on these can drives to gain extra revenue for various things they want or for money they donate to good causes. Will this be able to continue if we all close?

This issue has been an on going battle year after year at the State House. During the past three years, there have been over twelve bills that could have solved everyone’s problem. Ask your Senator and Representative why nothing has been done. Also ask them how they voted on the bills that were brought up that never made it anywhere. You elected them and some will be up for re-election again.
The solution to the problem is simple:
1) increase the handling fee
2) increase the fines for offenders in both the business and private sectors
3) give the DNR authority to impose these fines
4) expand the bottle bill to include those newly developed non-deposit items like water

Over the years, we have had so many organizations and people that have worked ever so hard to get the bottle bill updated so that in fact we can compete in the 21st century. Right now we are forced to operate on 19th century income in a 21st century economy. It simply just is not and can not work.

If you have any thoughts or would like to help regarding this issue, I would welcome the opportunity to discuss it with you.

Kathryn Russell
Winterset
515-462-2840

one more shout.
over the last 3 years the legislature has had 12 bills introduced to close the loopholes, and remove the gray areas. They have ignored all attempts to get the problems corrected.As a whole they set on their back sides, and let us as Iowan’s fend for our selfs. It is any wonder that the law is being corrupted. Representative Shoults introduced the perfect bill,and would have made the bottle bill work like a Rolex. It dissapeared in committee somewhere. Increase the handling fee, give the DNR the authority to charge the offenders, increase the fines to anyone that breaks the law.
And add the 400,000,000 non-carbonated drinks to the deposit list. Those things are basic.
Larry sargent

here is how it works. the center pays 5 cents for the containers, they get back 6 cents from the dist.The dist. gets the money from all unredeemed containers, and the money from the sale of all the scrap material, and the interest on all the deposit money he has collected, while he is waiting for the cans to be returned. He also gets a profit from the product when he sells it to the stores.
In 1979 minimum wage was $1.80 cents an hour the same day the bottle law started it went to $2.35.
$2.35 x 40 hrs.per week is a gross wage of $94.00 wages per wk. At a penny per can a redemption center needed 9,400 cans to pay an employee for a week. Or 488,800 per year. That is no taxes, insurance or benifits of any kind.

That good employee was processing 2,500 cans an hr. or 20,000 in an 8 hr. day 100,000 cans per week. Not counting any time to clean up, put things away, answer the phone or deal with customers, which subtracts from that total.

So in 1979 that good employee was generating $1,000 per week for the center to pay wages, rent utilities, taxes, and all other expenses, plus what ever was left for profit to cover the owners investment.
And YES, redemption centers are privately owned operated and funded. NO, tax money or tax breaks, NO subsidies, NO grants. They must pay income tax,unemployeement benifits,match Social Security, and medicare, property tax without any breaks, and workmens comp.Plus all the other expenses a normal business generates, like rent utilities, repairs.

To day minimum wage is $5.35. or $214.00 per week so 21,400 cans per week.1,112,800 per yr.are now needed to pay the wage.

$6.00= $240.00= 24,000.=1,248,000per yr. $7.00=$280.00= 28,000 = 1,456,000 per year.
$10.00=$400=40,000=20,000,000

Have I got up to a wage most of you could live on yet?

Yet that same employee is still processing 2,500 units per hr. or the origional 100,000 per wk.
Since all aspects of the normal business expenses have increased between 300% to 500% Even the simple minded should be able to see why the centers are either closing or looking for ways to to increase the ever dissapearing profit margin.When this 4 cent thing started, the DNR gave the centers their blessing, and stated in letters, and on their web page that it was permissiable. To pay less then the full 5 cent refund on quanities over 500.
While we are talking about the law. Iowa Law CLEARLY states that containers must be clean empty, dry and free of all foreign material. Or they may be refused. They may have their own DRY desidue.
There is nothing in the law that states how a store or center must accept the numbers required. The 1 cent fee does not allow any room for extra service, such as hand counting and sorting all the non-deposit products out of the consumers deposit containers. So if as a consumer you want the full 5 cents, back and you don’t want to tip the store or center the penny. Return your emptys correctly, counted, and sorted, in the proper containers, or go to Wal-Mart and put them in the stupid machine one at a time.
Or dump the things in the recycle bin, lose your nickle all togetner and make the dist of the products Happy, Happy, cause he will have a good time spending your 5 cents.(about $14,000,000per year in unclaimed deposits.)

i think its great to the people that want to help out the redemption centers i know how hard it is to do that kind of work i work at one 6 days a week by myself listen to all kinds of people most of the time they are listening to me i just want to say is I BELIEVE WE SHOULD NOT HAVE TO GIVE UP OUR PENNY IT SHOULD BE THE COMPANIES PROBLEM NOT US

I think we are all missing the point here. There were over 1.9 billion deposit cans and bottles sold in Iowa last year. Plus another 500 million non-carbonated beverages that do not at this point require a deposit. And they are going to be somewhere. There are only 3 places these emptys can possibably be. (1)the landfill/garbage (2) The ditches and waterways of our great state Or (3) A good recycling program. Two out of the three options are going to require that some one will have to be paid to process the containers, and the third choice just requires hip wadders.
So if someone has to be paid to clean up, doesn’t it make sence to use the system that produces the best results for the least cost.
Right now the only people that are paying to clean up these containers are the companies that sell and profit from the sale of these products, and the people that consume them.
The bottle bill recovers close to 90% of these same containers, and enters them in to the process for reuse.

If the bottle law is allowed to become unworkable, the 2.4 billion containers will still be there and they will still have to be dealt with. Other states that have just recycling programs are recovering between 25/30% leaving 70% of these products to be placed into our landfills and personal environment(ditches/ waterways/streets/parks.
For every aluminum can recycled enough energy is saved to operate a lightbulb for 10 hours, or a TV for 4. Plastic is petroeum based. Do you want to make plastic bottles with all that lovley foreign oil, so you can use them once and toss them, or do you want to put that oil in your tank?

Everyone wants to talk about personal Choice, well, how about personal responsibility. Give the redemption centers an increase.And give The DNR the authority, and responsibility to enforce the law the way it is written. and increase the penelities so that the abuses of the system will stop.

I guess I should have said that most centers don’t handcount every bag.I do know a couple that do. But most like myself find it to expensive to have to handle every bag twice. At my center we count and sort at the same time. So when a customer comes in there are bins set up on both sides of the counter and they get sorted into the proper bin once the bag is full it is measured against a mark on the outside of the bin. We have seperate bins for the different sizes. We do pull random bags throughout the day to make sure we are not running over or under.

The Bottle Bill - what an unbelievable mess. I lobbied at the state capital for 5 years to get one extra penny for redemption centers. All to no avail. You would not believe the politics that are involved in this legislation. There are lots of good honest people doing lots of dirty work in handling our filthy cans and bottles just to make the bottle bill work…..all for a penny. Redemption centers have closed left and right. People that complain how they do business should spend 1 day working at a redemption center. In some areas you now have to drive over an hour to find one. Do you think that a 5 cent can is worth a one hour drive to a redemption center with the price of gas these days? I wish our lawmakers would do something about this mess. I know many many people who are basically tossing their cans and bottles in the garbage because there is no where to go with them. Since the first nickel was paid to the big guy (Pepsi, Bud, etc.) this only means they will keep that nickel and never have to pay it back. This should irritate every Iowan; I know it does me. Redemption centers must be paid more then a penny to make the bottle bill work. Four years ago at the State Capital I was told that if the distributors were required to pay redemption centers 2 cents instead of 1 to handle their containers that they would be forced to raise the price of one 12 pack of their product by at least $1.00. Holy cow, even I can do the math on this one. Its a mess that needs to be fixed. If it can’t be changed to force the distributors to pay more to the hard working redemption centers, then I suggest they get rid of the bill all together. Politicians need to quit hiding behind the phrase “it is good for our environment and our state”. Get out and look around in areas where finding a redemption center is next to impossible. In these areas it isn’t “good for environment and good for our state”. The mess is out there and someone at our state capital needs to have the guts to get it cleaned up.

I think its a bunch of crap. If I have to pay 5 cents I want my 5 cents back!!!

Guess our redemption must be unique, Gina. Your comment was: Also the redemption centers do not hand count each bag either they fill a bin and the distributors pay the same amount across the board for the same bags that the customers expect to be paid extra for.

You bring your bag/bags of cans/bottles to us, they do get counted/checked for redeemability as we sort by distributor and put the quantity of cans/bottles in each bag that the distributor requires. We do use sorters that keeps an acurate count of what is in each bag and what is being redeemed.

I’m not about to give the distributor even 1 extra can, becuase they will only pay for a certain number in each bag…………NO MORE! I’d loose the gigantic 1 cent I earn per can very fast with it taking 5 cans of my earnings to make up for that 1 extra can I had put in a bag.

When you only earn 1 cent per can you can’t afford to give it away!

I know that after cans,bottles etc are taken to patterson redemption they are picked up by container recovery who crushes the glass after it’s sorted by color,the cans and plastic are crushed then it all goes to mid america.I don’t know where it goes from there. I have two sons who work for container recovery,one drives truck the other one sorts the bottles and stuff that are recycled.

Thank you for your info Rosemarie, I think if we all knew excactly what goes on in the recycling industry we would be more understanding.

Gina DM– The scrap aluminum is picked up by the distributors (Pepsi, Budweiser, Coke etc) They sell the scrap for cash. They also keep all the money from cans that are never returned. They are the only ones who are making money off of the bottle bill. In the past redemption centers could make a decent living, just not anymore the cost of doing business has gone to high. While the distributors continue to raise their prices they don’t include anything extra for the redemption centers. They do however include enough to pay lobbyist to keep our legislators from voting on this issue.

years ago my grandpa would take his cans stomp on them save them up for a while then turn them in for junk.

If the price of pop and beer keep going up nobody will be able to drink it that will solve the problem..We take our cans to PATTERSENS ON THE SE. SIDE OF DES MOINES we tip the people who actually sort the cans.. Why give it to the ones setting in the office? GIVE IT TO THE WORKER.. My son works at a recycling center in DSM. they pick up the cans and bottles from the redemption center, what happens after they are crushed? who gets them then,after they are melted down where do they go, some one is making money ,this is all for a profit going to someone. WHATS ALL THIS STUFF RECYCLED INTO? THERE IS MONEY BEING MADE SOME WHERE..

“Same bottle No deposit” yep your right and those water bottle are not being recycled. You are paying a fee to dump them either in the landfills or the recycling bins, guess what that is subsidizing the business. The difference is you get nothing back but a filthy enviroment.

Also the redemption centers do not hand count each bag either they fill a bin and the distributors pay the same amount across the board for the same bags that the customers expect to be paid extra for.

I’ll tell ya right now, if you are taking your cans and bottles back in bags,you are already donating.That’s right, you are being shorted big. Don’t believe that? Count a couple of bags and than take them in and see what you get! If I have to sort and count and put on flats, than I want the six cents the redemption centers get per container for me to do their jobs. No way should I have to subsidize these redemption centers any more than I would subsidize any business. What if you went to the store and upon checkout you find out they want another 20% because they can’t make a living? No,I don’t work at or own a redemption center,for good reason. Drink water,no deposit,same bottle.

My wife operates a redemption center and I can tell you she is very dedicated to making her business work. One of hers contracts calls for her to pick up 7 days a week. They only day she takes off is Christmas day, even all other holidays when you are all enjoying your day she has to run her route before we can go enjoy the day. Shepards Redemption center in Montezuma is open 6 days week. Even with all of this she has had to start asking customers if they would be willing to donate 1 cent to help keep the place open and the so far about 80% have been more than willing. She does not charge a service fee but leaves it up to the customer.

If you are truly interested in the bottle bill check out the following links they are very infomative.

http://www.iowadnr.com/waste/recycling/files/nickel.pdf

www.iowabottlebillcolition.com