They must be gearing up for this fight in the next legislative session again:
Iowa's grocery stores are relying more on redemption centers to handle customers' empty cans and bottles.
Since January, the number of Fareway and Hy-Vee stores that have stopped taking the recyclables has more than doubled.
Now customers are being asked to make an extra trip to state-approved redemption centers -- a move store officials say makes their facilities safer.
Bob Cramer, president of Fareway Stores Inc., said filthy cans and bottles pose a sanitation risk for food stores.
"The public support for not having them in the grocery stores is loud and clear," he said.
Huh? The last statement is just implausible. I doubt a great public outcry for consumer inconvenience is being heard anywhere except in the fantasies of grocery store executives.
Just admit the truth, HyVee and Fareway: YOU WANT MORE MONEY for doing it. And maybe that's a case you can make. It might be time to look at going the Michigan route, making the deposit a dime, and while we're at it adding all the waters and juices that have become a part of the drinking habit in the last 25 years.
The Michigan dime has long intrigued me, since I have a brother in Michigan. I've contemplated whether that extra nickel a can would pay for itself if I went to visit my brother and took all my cans and bottles..
Mapquest tells me it's 495 miles from Iowa City to Midland, Michigan. That's a 990 mile round trip.
My reasonably fuel efficient car gets me 30 miles a gallon. So I'll burn 33 gallons of gas. At the $2.039 they're now chargin in Iowa CIty (I filled up for $1.959 last night in Cedar Rapids - what's with that?) that's $67.29 in gas.
That's 1,346 cans: $67.30 in Iowa, $134.60 in Michigan. At 12 ounces a can, that's 125.63 GALLONS of one's preferred beverage. Feel free to divide that by the cubic volume of your vehicle or your bladder.
No comments:
Post a Comment