A state law that hasn’t been updated since its inception over 40 years ago, may see new light this year.

District 24 Senator Jesse Green of Boone says the commonly known “bottle bill” is in the Senate Ways and Means Committee and there’s been two amendments to the original legislation. He tells Raccoon Valley Radio the handling fee for redemption centers would be increased from $0.01 to $0.03, with the wholesaler to pay for the increase, while they also receive a reduction in the excise tax. Green adds, the other amendment is allowing grocery stores to opt out of having to take redeemable cans and bottles.

Green sees this bill as a major advantage to keep local redemption centers in existence.

“One, you’re going to get a higher traffic flow of cans coming to the redemption centers because the grocery stores, a lot of them, don’t want to accept them, and then of course tripling the profits on each can. I think there’s also a component to the bill where they don’t have to sort out as much as they used to. So that’s going to save them (redemption centers) time and labor on their end. So all the way around, the redemption centers are going to win with this bill and it’s long overdue.” 

Because the bill is in the ways and means committee, it can remain a viable bill until the end of the legislative session.