The group which represents Iowa’s non-alcoholic beverage producers, bottlers, and distributors has launched a website called empties.org to help you locate a place to take back your cans and bottles.
Iowa Beverage Association Executive Director Jon Murphy says they found many people don’t know where to take empties. “So that’s why we created the site. We think it’s a easy way to click on go to empty.org put in your zip code or your address, and it’ll pop up the closest redemption locations closest to you,” he says. Murphy has seen some change since the legislature revised the deposit law in 2022 and let businesses opt out of taking back deposit cans and bottles. “I think there’s fewer places, but one of the things is there was no easy way to find the ones that are continuing to take back bottles and cans and the new redemption locations that have opened,” Murphy says. “And so that’s really why we created this and and to make sure that we’re keeping an up to date list of where people can go. So there’s hundreds of places to take back your bottles and cans across the state of Iowa.”
Murphy says they hope the website helps you find what you need. “We’re trying to improve empties every day, to get more locations put in, making sure we’ve got every one of them that’s actually taking back bottles and cans in the actual site. So it’s constantly being worked on,” he says. Murphy says the end goal is to keep the cans and bottles out of ditches and recycle them. “Our industry wants to make sure that every can becomes another can through its life cycle so that people are recycling them. Every bottle becomes another bottle. So we’re very focused on getting every bottle back, making sure that we’re recycling at the highest level possible. And kind of our number one thing is just accessibility, and you can’t find a place if you don’t know what the address is,” Murphy says.
The revised bottle deposit law allows retailers to opt out of taking back empty cans and bottles and paying the deposit to customers if they are within set distances from a recycling facility.