Columbia's deposit law faces challenge in election

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- Columbia's 25-year-old law requiring a nickel deposit on beverage containers is being challenged again.

Columbia voters go to the polls next week, for the fourth time, on a proposal to repeal the law aimed at cutting down on littering by rewarding consumers for turning in their empty cans and bottles.

Critics have a new pitch this time around, hoping to convince residents of the environment-conscious university town that repeal will actually lead to more recycling.

The city is building a recycling center to handle plastic, glass and other items that residents leave in blue bags by the curb. The group seeking to overturn the law says that without the nickel deposit, more aluminum would end up in the bags that then could be sold for scrap.

"We're estimating the city would gain $200,000 to $300,000 a year," Jim Hoffman, a Gerbe's store manager who is helping lead the campaign to repeal the deposit, told The St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Thanks to the "blue bag" program, he said, "this time we felt like there's a good alternative" to the deposit law.

But supporters of the law call the argument misleading because more glass and plastic containers also would end up in the bags. Those materials would cost more to sort, they argue, than they bring in scrap markets.

All about litter

Supporters also argue that more beverage containers would be dumped without the deposit, increasing the cost of litter pickup.

"The reason Columbians passed this in the first place is they got sick and tired of this beverage container litter," said Columbia Mayor Darwin Hindman. "They are being led to believe the 'blue bag' will do the same thing, and it won't."

Support for repealing the law comes from retailers and distributors.

Distributors are required to mark containers of beer, soft drinks and other carbonated drinks to show they were sold in Columbia. Retailers pay distributors 5 cents for each container, then charge the consumer.

Consumers get their nickel back if they return a container. The distributor then picks up used containers and refunds the original deposit to the retailer.

But retailers receive no handling fee for processing and storing the cans and bottles. Distributors keep money from unredeemed deposits, as well as any profit from selling the aluminum. Still, they say they lose money because they must store Columbia's inventory separately and pick up used containers.

St. Louis-based Schnuck Markets gave $3,000 to the law's opponents, as did the local Anheuser-Busch distributor, according to initial campaign finance reports.

The law may have its flaws, supporters say. But they argue that the public wins because volunteers pick up litter to redeem deposits.

"The deposit works at virtually no cost to taxpayers," said longtime supporter Winifred Colwill of the League of Women Voters. "Any other system is going to rely on more solid waste fees."