It’s a ritual after tailgates and parties – box up the empty cans and bottles and take them to grocery stores to redeem the nickel or dime deposit.

But grocery store personnel say trash in the form of the bottles and cans brought back into their stores creates a contamination problem that can jeopardize the safety of the food.

That’s why the Iowa Grocery Industry Association, which represents 1,000 stores, launched a campaign to change the state’s can and bottle redemption laws. Association officials are sponsoring a petition drive through Dec. 12 to advocate replacing the current 22-year-old “bottle bill” with a recycling program.

“The main issue is food safety,” said Jerry Fleagle, president of the Iowa Grocery Industry Association. “It’s been something we felt we couldn’t ignore any longer.”

Grocers say they can’t provide a clean atmosphere for customers when syrupy cans and bottles are returned to the store.

“Customers bring trash into the store and then expect a clean environment,” said Russ Weis, manager of store operations at the West Ames Hy-Vee, 3800 W. Lincoln Way.

Iowa is one of 10 states with a bottle-deposit law, Weis said.

There have been no health violations by any grocery stores in Iowa from cans and bottles, but grocers want to prevent them from happening, Fleagle said.

“We are not aware of any single case where a person has gotten an illness from bottles and cans brought back into the store – and thank goodness that it hasn’t,” he said. “We are taking a proactive position on this.”

While grocers would like to see a new program in place, the Iowa Recycling Association is offering to increase handling fees.

When someone returns a bottle or can to a grocery store, the grocery store takes the item to a place to be recycled and receives a 1-cent handling fee.

“It’s not a contamination issue; it’s a competition issue,” said Dewayne Johnson, executive director of the Iowa Recycling Association.

Johnson said he would like to increase the handling fees received by redemption centers from 1 cent to 2 cents. But increasing handling fees doesn’t interest grocers.

“Cost is not the real issue,” Fleagle said. “We are not interested in a 2-cent handling fee that doesn’t address the food safety question.”

Proponents of the current bottle bill think grocery stores are just trying to save themselves a buck, Weis said.

“Actually, we are trying to expand recycling,” he said. “We recycle all cardboard and all plastics, and nobody tells us to do this. We recycle, on average, 12,000 pounds of cardboard a week.”

The current deposit law shrinks recycling as a whole, Weis said. “Fifteen percent of trash in Iowa is generated from aluminum and glass,” he said. “Ten percent of the bottles and cans sold never come back to the store.”

Weis said he would like to see people recycle more materials than just the items that bring in pocket change. “People are not recycling everything,” he said. “We are only recycling a very small portion of what we could.”

Johnson said grocery stores have done a great job keeping the stores clean and making the program work. “If there were no bottle bill, it would force cities and counties without curbside programs to do something they can’t afford,” he said.

Sandy Warren, co-owner of the Ames Area Redemption Center, said the company would go broke if there was no bottle deposit law. “I understand that if we have mandatory recycling then we will go out of business,” she said.

The Iowa Grocery Association leaders say they are willing to help with the recycling effort, but they don’t want the state’s grocery stores to be the sole redemption facilities. “We want to participate and want to be a part of the solution,” Fleagle said. “But we don’t feel we should be the solution.”