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The last sip drained with a sigh of relief. The bell rings, footsteps in the door, as the can adds to the mountain of student energy drink cans. The eSports team is gearing up to collect the school’s empty cans, turning trash into cash.
When buying certain types of beverages in the state of Iowa, consumers are required to pay a five-cent deposit under the Beverage Containers Control Law, which can be reclaimed when redeeming empty cans and bottles. Recently, debates have arisen again as legislators debate possible expansions.
At Ankeny High School, the eSports team has taken advantage of this Iowa law by using it as a fundraiser to build their rather new program and buy equipment.
The bill itself
The Beverage Containers Control Law, or more commonly known as the Bottle Bill, requires consumers to pay a five-cent deposit on all carbonated and alcoholic beverages. The state of Iowa collects all unclaimed deposit money.
The bill was originally passed in 1978 and was updated in 2022 to allow retailers to opt out of offering a redemption center. This has caused some frustration amongst consumers trying to redeem their can collection.
“[The bottle bill] provides a little bit of accountability for people, maybe not even just to think about getting that five cents back, but to keep the idea of recycling and being a little bit more mindful of what they’re doing,” social studies teacher and eSports sponsor Sean Cano said.
Ankeny High School Redemption
When walking around AHS, there are many recycling bins and boxes that students and teachers use to recycle their cans after drinking the beverage.
“I try to recycle as many cans as I can. I know there’s different groups that come by, and they’ll take the cans out of my bin, so they can use it for their group budgets or whatever it might be,” science teacher Brady Walz said.
The AHS robotics club implemented the can bins around the school, and then passed the reins to the eSports team.
“It’s typically once every other week that we are going through and trying to collect these [cans], whether that is popping around to different classrooms, or trying to pop into the office,” Cano said.
AHS’s eSports team is a newer program, which has been difficult to start. Collecting cans has been a helpful fundraiser for the team as they build their program.
“We’re building funds right now because eSports is an expensive program to get up and running. Having this, even if it’s 20, 40 bucks here and there, that’s still something that gets us going because we still need to buy equipment,” Cano said.
Outside of AHS, many students collect their used cans to redeem them when they get the chance.
“We put them all in my garage and my basement. Then my mom tells my brother and me to organize them and count them. We take them a few times a year,” sophomore Emma Matson said.
Possible Changes
The bottle bill is debatable because, although it’s considered a deposit, when cans and bottles aren’t turned in to a redemption center, the deposit becomes state revenue.
“It’s really difficult when you’re talking about either increasing a tax or removing a tax, because you’re talking about either making somebody pay the government more, and mandating that, or removing what the state calls revenue,” Iowa House representative of district 41 in Ankeny, Ryan Weldon, said.
Controversy has sparked over removing or increasing the bottle bill deposit because the deposit goes to the state when not redeemed, and it’s a relatively small deposit.
“If that money goes somewhere good, then that’d be a good thing,” Matson said.
In February, Iowa House Study Bill 661 proposed expanding the definition of beverage to include metal cans containing liquids for human consumption.
“The plastics are a bigger issue than aluminum. I wish they would have a better policy for being able to put those types of bottles in there. I wish they would expand it,” Walz said.
However, legislatures are struggling to come to a consensus because of differing views over taxes. Some want to abolish the bill altogether, while others want to expand the list of included containers.
“When you’re talking about the bottle tax, people aren’t going to want to do anything because of the greater conversation of wanting to reduce taxes. It just adds a lot of complexity to that bill,” Weldon said.
