WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER

The tide of public opinion Tuesday went against a mandatory deposit on cans and bottles and against restrictions on airboats on Nebraska's rivers. Both issues were subjects of hearings in Omaha by the Legislature's Natural Resources Nebraska Committee. Legislature State Sen. Curt Bromm of Wahoo said an interim study on a proposed deposit on cans and bottles was intended to determine whether the state is doing all it can to reduce litter and to reduce the amount of trash going to landfills. Bromm said he doesn't know whether a bottle bill will be introduced in the Legislature. Bromm called the idea a " 10-cent incentive to recycle" that has doubled recycling rates for beverage containers in states with deposits. Bromm noted that pop-bottle recycling in Nebraska has slipped. The state's annual recycling rate has reached 16 percent, he said, but the tons of trash going to landfills continues to increase. "I'm not sure we're winning the battle," he said. But recyclers, a grocer and a convenience store official opposed the deposit proposal, each for different reasons. Kay Stevens, executive director of the Nebraska State Recycling Association, said a deposit on glass and aluminum containers would upset the recycling network in the state. A 1979 law taxes manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers of food, beverages, cigarettes, paper products and other items. The money collected from those taxes, now about $1.1 million a year, goes to clean up litter, recycling programs and public education. "Nebraskans, as you've noticed, don't like mandatory anything," Stevens said. Stevens recommended a more comprehensive approach, possibly a system by which people pay fees for garbage disposal based on how much trash they toss. People would save money by recycling, she said. John Allen of Hy-Vee Food and Drug Stores said food safety is the basis of his concern about a deposit law. Having worked for Hy-Vee in Iowa, Allen said he is familiar with how that state's bottle law works. Bringing empty containers into food stores creates health concerns and adds to stores' labor costs, he said. Iowa, one of the 10 states that mandate deposits, requires customers to pay a 5-cent deposit on each container, refundable when the empty container is returned.