A long-standing Iowa law relating to five-cent deposits for recycling plastic bottles and aluminum cans may see significant changes before the end of the Legislative Session.

Two proposals have emerged from the Iowa Senate and House aiming to bolster redemption centers and reform the law to encourage more returning of bottles and cans for recycling.

District 40 State Senator Ken Rozenboom has been working for years to update the law, and while the proposals stray from his initial bill submitted last year, he understands there is a pressing need to make changes.

“We all know that the redemption centers have been starving and a one-cent handling fee has not been enough for years, and all of the proposals recognize that and attempt to correct that,” he says. “The current senate proposal actually bumps that up to a three-cent handling fee, and that should rejuvenate the redemption industry — we only have 60 redemption centers in the state anymore and that’s for 99 counties.”

Both versions would no longer require grocery and convenience stores that sell soda and beer to accept the empty bottles and cans and pay the nickel deposit in 2023. The goal is to bolster redemption centers — but the opt out measure may leave many rural Iowans without a place to recycle, as 44 counties do not have a guaranteed place to drop off bottles and cans if the new law is approved as written.