A bill to eliminate the decades-old bottle deposit law is one step closer to becoming law.

For nearly 40 years, consumers have been able to recycle bottles and cans and get their 5-cent deposit back, but that could be going away.

Every day, thousands of bottles and cans are recycled here at return centers ... in grocery stores.

Brothers Tom and James Dawson told us that they come once a week.

“Everybody knows that I collect cans and they just bring them (or) hang them on my door,” Tom Dawson said. “When I get so many I just fill the trunk up and bring them up.”

The Dawson brothers said they depend on the extra $20 a week they receive from collecting cans.

“Some people, they just live off collecting cans and stuff,” James Dawson said. “It's how they make their money.”

If the new bill becomes law, bottles and cans will no longer be worth money to recycle.

“The bottle bill was a good idea when it passed in 1979,” said Rep. Ross Paustian, R-Walcott.

Paustian said having the bottle bill no longer makes sense because so many communities have their own single-stream recycling.

Paustian’s bill would scrap the existing bottle bill and impose recycling fees on distributing companies. The money from the fees would be used to create a litter control program.

“It's going to stress more recycling,” Paustian said. “It's also going to stress more litter cleanup.”

Beer Distributor Mike Brewington, of Iowa Beverage Systems, said he is against any changes that would add fees and increase the price for consumers.

“Any fee that is going to be added to the cost of recycling is going to be added to the cost of our products,” Brewington said. “That concerns me.”

The Iowa Grocery Industry Association said it supports getting rid of the bottle bill.

It released the following statement Monday:

“The Iowa Grocery Industry Association supports bringing a more comprehensive, sustainable plan to Iowans.

The current bottle deposit law was developed in 1978 as an anti-litter campaign. And while forward thinking and successful for its time, it addresses only an estimated 3% of the waste stream.

“Since 1978, recycling programs across the state have grown and a large majority of Iowans are serviced by or have access to a recycling program. The proposed legislation addresses both recycling and litter and would capture a much larger portion of the waste stream.”

The bill passed through in a subcommittee and will move on to the House Environmental Protection Committee.