The Iowa Senate recently passed their language to change the bottle bill law, but the House also made an amendment, and sent it back to the Senate.

House District 20 Representative Ray Sorensen tells Raccoon Valley Radio the House passed their amendment on the Senate’s bill that would make improvements to Iowa’s bottle redemption law. 

“(The) Bottle deposit law hasn’t been updated in over 40 years. So I guess our goal was to give consumers more convenient locations to return their bottles and help the system run more smoothly. Because as it stands, it doesn’t seem like many people are following the law and for redemption centers to operate, they need a little bit of a raise.”

He explains this amendment would increase the handling fee that distributors pay to redemption centers from oneto three cents and allow the ability for retailers to opt out of taking empty containers if they don’t meet the criteria, which includes: a redemption center is within the retailer area, the retailer has a food establishment and also adds increased fines to ensure all retailers, distributors, redemption centers, and recyclers are following the law. Sorensen says that there will be a legislative review committee established to evaluate how this amendment is working and could readdress ahead of the 2026 legislative session.