Attached are some notes on the Bottle Bill that I used recently to address some of the inaccuracies presented by the other side. I hope you find these helpful when talking to legislators and others. Garth Frable Iowa Recycling Association [I have shortened this by eliminating Garth's notes on the Increase in the Handling Fee. If you would like to see those notes, let me know. Jane Clark at [log in to unmask]] ================================================= Myth Bottle Bills Hurt Or Compete With Curbside Programs and Other Recycling Programs False Iowa has the 5th highest number of curbside programs in the nation. Iowa's recycling rate is within the top ten in the nation. Of the ten states with the highest recycling rates, six are bottle bill states. States with bottle bills have higher participation rates in their local curbside and dropoff recycling programs. The City of Seattle Solid Waste Utility staff studied the potential impact of a bottle bill on Seattle's curbside program and concluded, "the bottle bill would increase recycling levels of beverage containers and reduce the City's overall solid waste management system costs." The increase in the handling fee will mean that many more publicly and privately owned recycling centers can get into the redemption businesses and/or the processing of the containers collected. Most of the beverage containers are consumed away from home. Please remember that these beverages are packaged for convenience, are generally for single serve consumption, and are consumed in minutes not hours, days, or weeks. Most of us do not take a jar of mayonnaise in the car with us and polish it off in one sitting. Myth Bottle Bills Are Only About Recycling False Bottle deposits are first and foremost about litter control. Bottle bills have also had numerous unexpected benefits including increased recycling, job creation (including that in sheltered workshops), fund raising opportunities for schools and youth groups, and increased pride in our state. The Solid Waste Coordinators of Kentucky (this is essentially the ISOSWO of Kentucky) conducted a litter survey in May of 1999 and found that 48 percent of the litter is beverage containers. Bottles and cans are not biodegradable and can cause significant damage to mowing machines. The proposed expansion includes up to $6 million dollars to improve redemption as well as support local litter and recycling initiatives. It has been argued that Iowa is focusing a small percent of the waste and litter stream. Please note that the tonnage handled through the bottle bill is more than all the waste tires generated in Iowa annually (1 per person). I think we would all be satisfied with a waste tire program that successfully recovered more than 90 percent of tires without tax dollars involved. Myth Bottle Bills Are Inconvenient To Iowans False More than 85 percent of Iowans support the bottle bill. Close to 75 percent want to see it expanded. The opponents argue that carrying all these empties back will be burdensome. They never explain how those who have gotten the full containers home from the store are suddenly in peril when the containers are empty. Myth The Average Cost Of Handling Each Container Under The Expansion Will Be 12 Cents Or More False This number is from a study paid for by the beverage industry in Massachusetts. The Massachusetts Public Interest Research Group described the data in this study as "at best exaggerated and at worst simply misleading." Massachusetts's bill does not currently include wine and liquor as Iowa's bill does. Maine has an expanded bottle bill. Redemption centers are paid 3 cents to handle and sort containers. Under the 12 cent cost estimate presented, these redemption centers are losing 9 cents per container, and yet there are 350 redemption centers in Maine compared to fewer than 110 in Iowa. There will be additional sorts necessary for various brands. However, the majority of the containers are controlled by Coke and Pepsi. For example, Coke owns Minute Maid juices and Dasani water. Pepsi owns Tropicana juices and Aquafina. Aquafina has the largest share of the bottled water market. Pepsi now has more than 80 percent of the sports drink market with its recent purchase of Quaker Oats and Gatorade. In fact, Pepsi alone will have a full 25% share of the expanding non-carbonated beverage sector when it adds Gatorade, the No 1 sports drink to its non-carbonated roster of recently purchased SoBe drinks, Tropicana juices, bottled teas, and fast growing Aquafina water. In Maine, many grocers sort by only material type (glass, plastic, and aluminum) and one of the 350 redemption centers does the refined sort by distributor. Some grocery stores in Iowa already have such a relationship with their local redemption center. Where there are reverse vending machines, the machine would only need to be programmed to read the additional container types. A conservative estimate is that redemption centers in Iowa handle approximately one-third or 400 million of the containers redeemed annually in Iowa. The proposed expansion will cover approximately 300 million containers (270 million containers assuming a 90 percent redemption rate). If the handling fee is not increased and most of the redemption centers close, grocery stores will handle an additional 400 million containers annually. It seems contradictory for the grocery industry to oppose the expansion of containers covered by the bottle bill because of space concerns and then oppose the one cent increase in the handling fee when such opposition will result in 400 million more containers in their stores. Myth Products Will Be Driven Off The Shelf If They Are Included In The Bottle Bill Update False The Massachusetts Public Interest Research Group describes the claim that products were driven from the shelves in Maine as "patently untrue." Please remember that the same argument was used when the bottle bill was originally passed but related to beer and soft drinks. However, the diversity of beer brands and the proliferation of the microbrewery businesses over the past 20 years should discredit any such argument. Currently, for example, in central Iowa 12 different "non franchise" beverages are successfully handled through one third party contract. Myth Handling Additional Glass Through The Bottle Bill Will Be Dangerous To The Consumer False It is interesting that this concern does not apply when the container is full only when it is empty. A study in the American Journal of Public Health concluded that the implementation of a bottle bill in Massachusetts resulted in a 60 percent drop in glass-related lacerations especially among children. Far from increasing injuries, bottle bills significantly reduce them. Myth There Is No Effort To Repeal The Bottle Bill False There is correspondence describing the efforts underway to repeal the Bottle Bill. There has also been much made of the fact that no new bottle bills have been passed recently. It should be noted that last year California expanded its bottle bill. The reality is that large sums of money have been spent by the soft drink and grocery industry to defeat any new or expanded bottle bills, usually while still in committee. The same is obviously being attempted in Iowa. The numbers are staggering: In 1996 in Oregon, for example, opponents of the bottle bill expansion spent $3.3 million to defeat - they outspent supporters 11 to 1. In 1987, the beverage industry spent $2.3 million in Washington to defeat a bottle bill effort there. Similar amounts were spent in Kentucky last year to defeat a bottle bill proposal there. In conclusion, Iowa's Bottle Bill is about pride in our state. It puts responsibility on the producer, retailer, and consumer of the products in question. In 22 years, the grocery industry has figured out how to put banks, dry cleaners, photo labs, pharmacies, restaurants, and post offices, among other services in their stores. I argue that if the industry can adapt to these changes it can adapt to an expanded bottle bill. The expanded bottle bill is supported by the majority of Iowans and by such groups as the Izaak Walton League; Iowa State Association of Counties ; Iowa League of Cities; Iowa League of Women Voters; Iowa Environmental Council; Iowa Recycling Association; Iowa Sierra Club; Iowa Audubon; Iowa Association of County Conservation Boards; Iowa Conservation Education Council; Ecumenical Ministries of Iowa; Iowa United Methodist Church, and the Iowa Wildlife Federation to name a few. More than 44,000 signatures have been collected so far to update the bottle bill. I believe the opinions of these people matter. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - For SC email list T-and-C, send: GET TERMS-AND-CONDITIONS.CURRENT to [log in to unmask]