Remember that episode of Seinfeld where Kramer and Newman attempted to drive a mail truck full of cans and bottles to Michigan in order to profit from the $0.10 bottle deposit? Well, apparently, people really do this. And it’s no fun for Michigan.
The AP says that the state of Michigan would have $10 million more a year for environmental cleanup if it weren’t for people from redeeming money on out-of-state containers.
Michigan is the only state with a dime deposit on all carbonated beverage containers — other states have a nickel deposit on most cans — so people buy drinks in Indiana, Ohio and Wisconsin and redeem the containers in Michigan.
“It’s like a rebate, $2.40 a case for pop and beer,” said Jim Wanty, president of O & W Inc., a beer distributorship in four Michigan counties near the Ohio state line. O & W lost about $65,000 last year from picking up more returned containers from stores than it had delivered.
The party may soon be over for bottle deposit fraudsters (some of whom are fairly sophisticated and collect and crush millions of cans), thanks to some new technology. The makers of the machines that collect the cans are working on a method to distinguish Michigan containers from out of state ones.
In Maine, requiring an address discourages out-of-state people from taking advantage –
In Maine, a new company has found success with redemption machines that put people’s bottle returns in a debit-card-like account that requires personal information initially.
“People who were coming in from out of state aren’t willing to put their name and address down saying what their home address is,” said Hal Prince, director of the Division of Quality Assurance and Regulations in the Maine Department of Agriculture. “They try to find other ways to redeem them or they take them back home.”
Despite the hassle, bottle deposit laws are popular are effective. Michigan says that 97% of containers are recovered.
States find a can of worms in bottle deposit laws [AP]
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If MI was paying out greater than the money they receive, I’d say its still a money maker for the state. 3% of deposits never get paid out. I would guess that the fraud is negligible.
But isn’t the act of returning cans bought in a non-deposit state to any of the ones that offers a 5 cent deposit refund, the same thing as returning a 5 cent can in 10-cent Michigan? So why is Michigan making such a fuss when practically none of the other deposit-offering states seem too upset about their out-of-state moochers?
It happens everywhere. Suck it up, Michigan.
Grew up in southwest Michigan, near South Bend, Indiana. In the South Bend Meijer stores, the Faygo and Meijer brand pop was bottled in Michigan and had the MI 10 Cent stamp on the top. I forget the exact numbers but both brands would go on-sale from time to time, making 12 packs about a dollar if you redeemed the deposit.
Next they’re gonna register cans for each state. I can only imagine it now:
Recycle Guy: I can’t refund this for you.
Me: Why?
Recycle Guy: This code here in 1000X magnification says you bought it in Canada.
Me: Oh, fuck.
The whole $0.10/$0.05 this is absolutely stupid!
Here in Texas, we usually have curb-side trash pickup. Would it be that hard to have curb-side recycling pickup? No. But why isn’t it more wide-spread? Because there’s no incentive to separate trash.
However, if you got some sort of prize (such as $0.10 per bottle, but not as strict nor as stupid as these state-specific ones) then it’d be worth it. Pay a “deposit” by the WEIGHT of the container, then get money back (or taken off your trash bill) for the WEIGHT recycled! SIMPLE! (And come on, it wouldn’t be hard to integrate a system to weigh and record the different trashcans since most curb-side pickups are done via machine anyway these days.)
Finally, when you look at places like Michigan, is it really helping the environment to have to create all sorts of new specialized machinery FOR EVERY GROCERY STORE (and wherever else required) on top of creating NEW MICHIGAN-SPECIFIC CONTAINERS? Seriously? It sounds more like a “waste lots of money, tax more, tell people you’re being green, doing what they want, etc, get re-elected, repeat” sort of deal. It sounds like needless EXPLOSION in government bloat. Who’s going to regulate all this crap? And when your recycling depends on WHERE you purchased the plastic bottle, you’re already going down the wrong path and have lost sight of the whole REASON to recycle.
@Ein2015: Recyclebank does this. It’s in some parts of Pennsylvania and maybe it’s spread since then. Curbside pickup for all your recycling (in one bin), weighed by the truck. You get about $5 per 25 lbs of recyclables, credited to an account. It’s not really $, it’s points, but you can redeem them at grocery stores and similar places.
[www.recyclebank.com]
Looking at their website, I see that it’s in several states now. It’s dependent on a super-cool automated single-stream recycling and reselling the materials to raw materials suppliers.
There are also some checks in place to make sure you’re not putting bricks into your recycle bin.
It really has made a huge difference in Michigan. As a long time resident, I was involved with the decision to enact the bottle bill and since then lots of homeless folks make a decent living (for them) from garbage picking and cleaning (selectively) roadsides. I believe the 97% thing because of the high homeless and welfare populations in Michigan. I have seen (and recognize) the same persons visiting “their” chosen trash cans every morning over the course of the year. Good for them. We do recycle, especially in my community, and the volume of recycled materials is staggering. We don’t have curbside pickup except for lawn waste (get that, we actually seperate and collect grass clippings, veggie materials, etc. place them in bags we purchase at nearby stores, and place at the curb where the city collects them, recycles them and provides the compost for free to residents. It’s common to see 50-100 bags of leaves out for pick up this time of year.) Doesn’t everyone do this? Or does your communitie’s recyclable waste go in landfills?
FWIW, at the University of Iowa, we noticed how many people in the dorm threw away cans….since they had no car and no way of taking them anywhere. I proposed that we put a big collection box downstairs by the big trash dump…and donate the proceeds to Habitat for Humanity or someone..but apparently that’s not allowed since empty cans and bottles are considered a monetary unit.
We would have had to implement the proper cash handling procedures and blah blah blah.
Of course, there were the same rules that c-blocked my efforts to raise $$ for Katrina victims even though I managed to get enough companies onboard to do a 7-1 match…as in we collect $1…and an extra $7 gets donated to the Red Cross.
“Michigan says that 97% of containers are recovered..”
Anyone Consumerist reader that studied Stats in college knows that the above statement is moronically imposable…
Who are they kidding….?
I buy my soda in Indiana and take the cans to Michigan just to throw them on the ground, so I’m getting a kick out of these replies….
I lived in a border town and they just checked IDs to make sure that people weren’t bringing in cans from out of province. It’s not fool proof, but it’s easier than changing laws, etc.
I miss soda in glass bottles.