Linda Schreiber writes commentary on selected legislative issues.

For more than four decades, Iowa’s Bottle Bill stood as a national model: simple, effective, and popular. It reduced litter, boosted recycling, and put responsibility where it belonged—on producers and consumers. The 2022 update weakened those goals while reducing public accountability.

In 2019, Iowa State University professor Dr. Dermot Hayes recommended adjusting the five-cent deposit enacted in 1979 for inflation, roughly 17 cents at the time. A survey showed 88 percent of Iowans supported the Bottle Bill. Advocates, including the League of Women Voters and the Sierra Club, urged lawmakers to strengthen the program, improve redemption access, and preserve public benefits.

Iowa lawmakers chose a different path.

Senate File 2378, which Governor Kim Reynolds signed in June 2022 and took effect on January 1, 2023, kept the deposit at five cents and allowed beverage distributors to retain unclaimed deposits. The law included no requirement to track those funds or determine how much money was diverted.

It also allowed many retail stores to opt out of redeeming containers if they operate on-site food preparation, shifting responsibility to increasingly scarce redemption centers. Although distributors must offer mobile redemption systems based on county population, convenience for consumers has declined—just as advocates warned.

The consequences are measurable.

To assess outcomes, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources relies on the Container Recycling Institute’s May 2024 report, which measures Iowa’s container recovery rate, not a redemption rate. Recovery includes all recycled containers, regardless of whether the deposit system played a role.

According to that report, Iowa’s overall recovery rate is 49 percent. Glass containers fare best at 76 percent, while PET plastic trails at 56 percent and aluminum at 42 percents. Plastic bottles and aluminum cans—among the most common roadside litter—are precisely the materials the deposit system was designed to capture.

Senate File 2378 created a Bottle Bill Fund to receive civil penalties, but enforcement has been minimal. The DNR reports compliance is pursued through communication, with fines assessed only after other efforts fail. To date, no fines have been issued and no penalties deposited.

The law also directed the Legislative Fiscal Committee to review Chapter 455C enforcement ahead of the 2026 session, acknowledging the need for oversight. Yet the statute did not require tracking of unclaimed deposits or establish enforcement benchmarks. With no accounting of diverted funds and no penalties assessed, the committee has limited information on which to evaluate the law’s fiscal or environmental performance.

Supporters point to changes allowing redemption centers to collect three cents per container and easing requirements to open new centers. Even so, the number of centers has fallen, from nearly 300 in 2019 to 136 today, according to the DNR.

Meanwhile, the Iowa Beverage Association maintains the system is working. In 2025, it launched Empties.org, claiming nearly 300 redemption locations statewide. That figure does not align with DNR data and highlights the lack of transparency.

At a time of budget pressure and persistent litter problems, allowing unclaimed deposits to flow to private entities was shortsighted. Those funds should support recycling infrastructure, litter abatement, water quality improvements, and environmental grants—priorities long championed by advocates and Iowans alike.

Advocates repeatedly urged lawmakers to raise the deposit. A higher deposit would have strengthened redemption incentives, reduced litter, and restored the Bottle Bill’s effectiveness. Instead, lawmakers weakened one of Iowa’s most successful environmental policies while labeling it “modernization.”

The 2026 legislative review is a critical opportunity. It must address what the law failed to require: transparency, enforceable standards, and accountability for unclaimed deposits. Adjusting the deposit to reflect economic reality is not radical—it is necessary.

The question before lawmakers is no longer whether the Bottle Bill works. It once did. The question is whether they are willing to fix what they chose to weaken—and ensure the law again serves the people of Iowa, not just the industries it regulates.

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Top image is by Ben Harding, available via Shutterstock.