Passed by voters in 1976, the state’s bottle return law for decades prompted high recycling rates, hitting 89% in 2019. Rates dropped during a complete system shutdown at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and haven’t recovered, falling to 75.6% in 2022.

“This is a real concern…where stores will sell you products, but they will not take them back,” Rep. Tyrone Carter, D-Detroit, said Tuesday during a House Regulatory Reform Committee hearing. “It started with COVID, but now we’ve ballooned to a ridiculous amount of folks that will not take them back.”

Industry statistics indicate that Michigan’s redemption rate exceeds most states with deposit laws, with 70% of cans being returned in California and New York and just 38% in Massachusetts.

Now, see! There’s something positive about ingrained Michigan culture! Three-quarters of us give a rat’s ass and don’t litter the great state of Michigan with cans and bottles!

Jerry Griffin, vice president of government affairs for the Midwest Independent Retailers Association, told lawmakers that consumers may simply be tired of carting bottles and cans to the store, advocating for a one-size-fits-all recycling program encouraging people to put their returnables in the recycling bin. […] “There is a lot of fatigue out there,” Griffin said. “To suggest that that’s only because a certain handful of small business retailers are limiting hours for people to bring things back, I think, is ignoring a larger question at hand.”

Oh, please. Fatigue. That’s like the nine-year-old crabbing about having to make their bed: “Awwww, I’m just gonna sleep in it tonight anywaaaaaay.” Sounds like it’s the retailers that Señor Griffin represents that just don’t feel like keeping up their end of the bargain…

Rep. Julie Rogers, a Kalamazoo Democrat and the bill’s sponsor, said the state needs a statewide standard. […] During spot checks in her district, Rogers said she found retailers who don’t accept returns on Sundays, long-broken machines, limits on total returnables and short time windows for returns.

Most of the people I know are already carting around USD$5 worth of empty cans and bottles rollin’ around in their cars already. Too bad there’s no deposit on fast food packaging, bubble packs or potato chip bags.