2019 ADVOCACY BOTTLE BILL, TOBACCO AGE, FUELING INFRASTRUCTURE
By Dawn Carlson, President & CEO and Reo Menning, Executive Vice President
Three legislative initiatives that impact the bottom line of FUELIowa’s members are the advocacy priorities during the 2019 session. Two of the three were part of FUELIowa’s proactive legislative priorities. See legistlative priorities in the yellow bar. B OT T L E & CAN REDE MPTION L AW The Senate and House have both proposed bills that will allow convenience stores to opt out of taking cans and bottles for redemption. At the same time, these bills increase the handling fee paid by beverage distributors to redemption centers from 1 cent to 2 cents per container. The goal of the bill is to ensure this post-consumer waste is handled by establishments designed to take trash. Convenience stores were never designed to handle waste. Pushback on the bill is from three angles. First, will there be enough places for the public to redeem bottles and cans if convenience stores are no longer in the mix, particularly in rural areas? Second, should the “bottle bill” continue to be in place, or should it be replaced by comprehensive recycling? And third, who will pay the additional penny to the redemption centers? Beverage distributors have the most to gain from keeping the status quo. Redemption rates continue to decline for various reasons. For every can or bottle that is not redeemed, beverage distrib-
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