Lines grow at can, bottle redemption center
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A Davenport couple stood in the parking lot of Eastern Iowa Recyclers Inc., dumping 12-packs of empty Diet Coke cans from their van into a large plastic bag.
Since March 17 — when many Quad-Cities grocery stores stopped accepting cans and bottles for their nickel deposit because of Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds’ public health emergency order related to COVID-19 — the couple had been letting the cans stack up in their garage.
On Saturday, they decided it was time.
The couple, who declined to be identified, estimated they had 75 cartons, or 900 cans, and were hoping to get them bagged and into the Davenport center by the time it closed at 11 a.m. When they spoke to a reporter, they had 15 minutes.
Theirs is a story that has been repeated throughout the Iowa Quad-Cities as residents learned — many for the first time — that without grocery stores and other retailers taking back cans and bottles, there are few other choices.
The general manager of Eastern Iowa Recyclers did not return calls asking for an interview, but people who are regulars at the center say the new influx of customers has meant long lines of people waiting to drop off containers, especially on Saturday mornings.
And the redemption center won’t take glass, such as beer and wine bottles, adding to people’s frustration.
But all this should be moot after July 25.
That is when Reynolds’ emergency proclamation is set to expire and, according to section 109 of the order, “Iowans and retailers should not expect that this suspension (of taking containers for redemption) will be extended beyond July 25.”
Her proclamation adds that retailers can begin accepting empty containers before that, with limits on the number of containers per customer or the hours they will be accepted to phase in the resumption of redemption.
Recycling center
Meanwhile, the Scott Area Recycling Center has seen a big upsurge in the amount of aluminum cans and plastic bottles it has received since the March proclamation.
Rather than going through the hassle of taking their cans and plastic bottles to the redemption center — or having them stack up — many residents have simply put them in recycling, despite not getting their nickel back.
The collection of No. 1 PET plastic, such as pop bottles, is up 15% since the pandemic started and aluminum is up 55% in Davenport, Bettendorf and drop-off centers in Scott County, said Kathy Morris, director of the Waste Commission of Scott County that operates the recycling center.
The recycling center also accepts glass and that, too, is up — 64%, largely attributable to beer, wine and liquor containers, Morris said.
Some people — calling around for a redemption center — “are so mad when they call us because they think we’re a redemption center,” she said. The recycling center is NOT a redemption center.
As with all nine products it collects, the recycling center tries to find buyers, or businesses, that will pay the center for these recycled commodities.
Glass is among the least profitable. The center sells to a buyer in Chicago, but by the time the center pays for someone to drive the product to Chicago and buys the fuel, the transaction is a wash, Morris said.
Still, this fulfills the center’s state-mandated mission of keeping as much material as possible out of the landfill.
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