Iowa | Beverage Containers Control Law

In April of 1978, Iowa introduced their DRS system through the Beverage Containers Control Law.

Iowa's bottle bill is organized and managed by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR).

The Iowa DNR released the results of a 2022 study on recovery rates associated with Iowa’s bottle bill in May of this year, including a 56% recovery rate for PET, a 42% rate for aluminum cans, and a 76% rate for glass bottles.

What's Included?

The report linked above lays out what is included under Iowa’s bottle bill and what is exempt, including:

Beverages Covered: beer, carbonated soft drinks, soda water, mineral water, wine coolers, and wine and liquor. 

Containers Covered: containers sold in “sealed glass, plastic or metal bottles / cans.” 

Exemptions: non-mineral water, juice, tea, energy drinks, sports drinks / electrolyte drinks, and milk and dairy products.

What's the Refund Value?

Iowa uses a flat refund value for all covered materials, which is five cents USD.

Impact of DRS in Iowa

Similar to New York, when compared to other states with DRS, Iowa’s recycling rates for covered materials are average, but when expanding to national average they prove to be comfortably ahead of the rest of the nation.

Iowa's PET recycling rate for 2018 of 38% is 18.96% higher than the national average (19.04%).

Iowa's aluminum recycling rate for 2018 of 62% is 30.72% higher than the national average (31.28%).

Iowa’s glass recycling rate for 2018 of 68% is 42.14% higher than the national average (25.86%).

[data from 50 States of Recycling 2.0 by Ball Corporation & Eunomia]

Using the same Tomra data for the other states, Iowa's DRS program had a 49% redemption rate for materials covered by the bill—the second lowest of the 10 states with bottle bills.

Stay up to date with Iowa’s bottle bill here.

Read about the bottle bills in the nine other US states here.