LANSING — Ten cents isn't what it used to be.
That may be why fewer bottles and cans are returned through Michigan's bottle deposit program, which charges consumers 10 cents per carbonated beverage container and repays the money when containers are returned.
In 2018, just 89% of containers purchased in Michigan were returned for cash deposits, the lowest rate since 1990, according to a Michigan Department of Treasury report. In 2008, 96.9% of beverage containers were returned.
On Wednesday, two Michigan legislators floated a plan to expand the deposit program to non-carbonated containers, a change that could keep more material out of landfills but remove material from community recycling streams and increase the burden on grocers who collect those containers.
On one hand, taking more glass bottles out of curbside recycling would be good, said Kerrin O'Brien, Executive Director of the Michigan Recycling Coalition. Glass bottles break in curbside bins, spreading shards where they don't belong and making bales of recycled materials less valuable.
But removing plastic water bottles and aluminum cans from community recycling streams means removing revenue, too.
"The recycling industry needs to look at how taking material out of the recycling stream and putting it through the bottle bill stream impacts recycling programs," she said. "I'm really interested in looking at ways that we can make the two systems really work well together to capture more material and reduce pollution overall."
More: With recycling market in flux, experts say recycle more and keep it clean
The return rate is dropping, but that might be OK
Matt Flechter, Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy recycling market development specialist, said there likely are three things causing the decline in the return rate: Inflation, which makes a 10-cent deposit less alluring; the time it takes to return containers; and the prevalence of curbside recycling.
Amy Drumm, vice president of governmental affairs for the Michigan Retailers Association, pointed to another possible cause in the drop-off: craft beer.
Grocers only have to accept containers from drinks they sell, so brands that aren't widespread, like Miller or Budweiser, have fewer options for returning contains.
"That makes it different with the craft beer and additional products in the market we didn't have in the '90s," Drumm said. "There's a lot more different beverage containers we have out there."
A lower return rate might not be a bad thing for the environment if those containers still get recycled, Flechter said. There is no evidence to show whether they are trashed or recycled.
"If people were littering their beverage containers and that was why the dimes weren’t coming back, then absolutely that’s a bad thing," he said. "If somebody's recycling their beverage container in their curbside bin, that's not a bad thing."
And when fewer bottles get returned, there is more cash for environmental programs partially funded with the leftovers.
Most of the money collected through the deposit program that isn't returned to consumers is sent to the Cleanup and Redevelopment Trust Fund. The rest, 25%, gets distributed to grocers who collect the cans and bottles.
That 25% "doesn't come anywhere close to covering their costs," Drumm said.
Thinking broadly about bottle return
The bills introduced Wednesday would reimburse grocers per bottle returned at their stores, as well as boost fraud enforcement and have larger stores accept all containers. The goal is to help the bottle deposit program keep up with the "explosion of single-use plastics," Rep. Jon Hoadley, D-Kalamazoo, said in a release.
Drumm said the Michigan Retailers Association, which represents state grocers, opposes expanding the state's bottle deposit law to non-carbonated drinks.
Grocers largely oppose the current law because bottle return machines are expensive — Drumm said they can run between $12,000 and $30,000 — and because of the space and work required to keep bottle return spaces clean and operational.
"The main concern for grocers is the issue with food safety," she said. "You're buying foods from these stores but you're bringing back dirty trash and containers... It's a very difficult thing to keep those areas clean and keep consumers safe when they go and buy food at other parts of the store."
More: Michigan's community recycling programs face major shortfalls because of changing market
Instead, grocers would rather have the state's recycling efforts focused on community recycling centers and educating people about how to recycle properly. Drumm argued the deposit law takes some valuable material, like aluminum, out of the community recycling streams.
Bottles and cans returned to grocery stores are more consistently recycled than those tossed in curbside recycling bins or drop-off centers, Flechter said.
Sorting machines at stores keep the plastic, aluminum and glass clean and sorted, making the material easier to sell and reuse than the material collected through community recycling centers, which tends to be less sorted.
Contamination is a big factor in the ongoing problem with recycling in the United States. Items like lightbulbs and garden hoses that get into the recycling stream can "contaminate" bales of material and make them harder to sell.
Glass is a good example, Flechter said. When collected through a bottle deposit, glass is turned into new products like counter tops or construction materials.
If it's collected through a community recycling program, Flechter said "that’s less likely because it's mixed with other materials, it's broken, it's got your bottle caps, your rubber bands, the other things that shouldn't be in your recycling bin."
Rather than falling into a grocer vs. environmentalist fight, O'Brien said it may be time to think more broadly about bottle return.
"Maybe there are ways to make recycling centers an easy place to take those back," she said. "Maybe there's a different way to provide redemption services that reduce that burden on both sides."
Contact Carol Thompson at (517) 377-1018 or ckthompson@lsj.com. Follow her on Twitter @thompsoncarolk.
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As bills aim to expand Michigan bottle deposit law, figures show dwindling return rate - Lansing State Journal
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