The House Environmental Protection Committee on Monday approved a bill
that would extend the 5-cent deposit to bottled water, tea, juice and
sports drinks. It's a step in the right direction, although it would
be better to increase the deposit so that redemption centers could
receive more than 1 cent for each can and bottle they handle. Governor
Culver's original bottle bill proposal would have doubled the deposit
to 10 cents, giving an extra penny to the redemption centers. However,
Culver's bill also would have returned only 8 cents of the deposit to
consumers. The other 2 cents would have gone to fund some
environmental programs.

Labels: Chet_Culver, state House