(Radio Iowa) – A district court judge has dismissed the grocery industry’s challenge of how state officials interpret Bottle Bill requirements for redeeming the nickel deposits on empty beverage containers. Meanwhile, at the state Capitol, a plan that would set the conditions by which grocers could opt out of processing the empties in their stores is eligible for debate in a state senate committee. Senator Dan Dawson, a Republican from Council Bluffs, says the bill could breathe new life into the effort to make changes.

“Iowans do like the Bottle Bill, but we have to be sympathetic to the infrastructure out there,” Dawson says. “Just because we like something doesn’t mean we can pass an unfunded mandate onto all these industries and turn around and say: ‘Make it happen,’ when we know the current system is not sustainable and is collapsing.”

Brad Epperly, a lobbyist for the Iowa Grocery Industry Association, says the solution beverage distributors and grocers came up with after daily meetings this year has no chance of winning HOUSE approval.  “We were told by the House it was a non-starter,” Epperly says. David Edelman, a lobbyist for the Iowa Wholesale Beer Distributors Association, says the groups will continue to negotiate, in hopes of finding acceptable adjustments in the Bottle Bill.  “After 40 years, I think we can all acknowledge that tweaks in the system need to be made,” Edelman says.

Jess Mazour of the Sierra Club of Iowa says consumers want convenience and the ability to take their empties back to the stores where they bought the beverages in the first place.  “We keep hearing about the grocers and the bottlers all saying they’ve come to an agreement, but we know that citizens overwhelmingly love the bottle deposit law that we have,” Mazour says.

The Grocery Industry’s lobbyist says redemption rates in Iowa are falling and the latest state report suggested 64 percent of bottles and cans are recycled. Mick Barry, president of MidAmerica Recycling in Des Moines, says only 32 percent of beverage containers are recycled nationally, so Iowa’s redemption rate for bottles and cans is about double that. “Cold turkey taking it out of the stores is probably going to take us backwards,” Barry says.

Senator Pam Jochum, a Democrat from Dubuque, says she’s concerned because in 2017, Iowa failed to claim 35 million in their deposits for bottles and cans.  “I’m hoping this time all the interested parties really are seriously talking to one another to find a solution,” Jochum says, “because the system is eroding.”

The grocery industry’s lawsuit that was tossed yesterday argued the Iowa Department of Natural Resources did not have the authority to enforce Bottle Bill rules. The judge ruled the agency’s actions weren’t irrational and it did not abuse its discretion.