A midlife crisis for Michigan's Bottle Bill as it turns 50 for America Recycles Day

Happy America Recycles Day! For this year's observance, I'm re-examining last year's Why are Michiganders returning fewer bottles and cans for America Recycles Day. I begin with WOOD-TV reporting Michigan bottle return rate lowest in decades.

For the third consecutive year, data from the Michigan Department of Treasury shows the recycling rate for beverage containers has dropped.

I hoped last year that falling can and bottle redeems were one of the bad behaviors prompted by the pandemic and would recover like some of the rest of them. So far, that hasn't happened. Instead, the pre-pandemic decline accelerated by stores not accepting returnables has continued. Sigh.

Click On Detroit/Local 4/WDIV went into more detail when it reported Michigan's 50-year-old bottle deposit system facing scrutiny.

Michigan’s bottle deposit system is facing renewed scrutiny after the state’s refund rate fell to 69.4% in 2025, which marked its lowest level in decades.

The decline is renewing debate over the policy. Independent grocers say the current system is costly, time-consuming and creates health and safety concerns. Shoppers who rely on the 10-cent deposit say it remains an important incentive to recycle.

The retailers are tired of being responsible for managing returns and are using the decline in redeems to call for reform or repeal of the bottle bill and have either the state or curbside recycling take up the slack. UpNorth Live examines their proposals in Retailers push to move Michigan bottle returns out of stores as bottle law turns 50.

Fifty years ago, Michigan’s bottle return law went into effect and for the past five decades people have been paying and then getting back those dimes for cans.

Participation by consumers is dropping and a growing number of retailers are voicing frustrations with the system in place.

"Back in the 70s and 80s was at 95 percent," said Bill Wild, CEO Midwest Independent Retailers Association.

But these days fewer folks are getting their dimes back.

I'm an environmentalist, so I favor reform over repeal. Follow over the jump for possible reforms.

WWMT-TV examines the proposed reforms in Bills aim to make bottle, can returns easier with new guidelines and clearer rules.

2026 marks 50 years since Michigan's bottle and can return law passed, but after decades on the books, the landmark effort to tackle litter and promote conservation faces issues.

From big box stores to corner shops, every retailer that sells you a soda or beer must take the cans back.

Those are good starts. The University of Michigan mentioned even more reforms in Bringing Michigan’s bottle deposit system into the 21st century.

The researchers found that the bottle bill still has broad support in Michigan despite sagging return rates. The team’s interviews revealed that one of the big obstacles standing in the way of consumers returning their containers is that getting the deposits back isn’t as convenient as people would like.

For example, retailers are required to refund deposits only on bottles that they sell. Consumers often accumulate returnables from a number of retailers and would likely return more if there were universal return centers, or single locations where they could return all of their deposit-eligible containers.

Another related insight revealed by the report is that larger retailers saw higher return rates than smaller retailers. These larger stores tend to have more resources they can put into their recycling areas to make the experience better for consumers, Miller said. For example, the stores have enough space to separate their recycling areas from the shopping areas and they have dedicated staff that can help clean and maintain the area.

“Some of the biggest issues are space, hygiene and labor,” said Miller, who noted that larger retailers are more likely to be able to build new stores or renovate old ones to have dedicated, deliberately planned return areas.

“Then you have a lot of older stores that have older infrastructure and they’ll have the can rooms right at the beginning of the store,” she said. “They can sometimes have issues with funkiness right where you walk in and that isn’t pleasant for customers.”

Smaller retailers are also less likely to be able to afford the reverse vending machines that customers feed their bottles and cans into, one at a time, to get their deposits returned. These machines also might not make sense for small volume stores.

Helping smaller retailers invest in technological upgrades like these is thus another opportunity to boost return rates, Miller said. Of course, developing and implementing solutions like these takes money.

Here's to reporting that at least some of these reforms were enacted and return rates increased next year for America Recycles Day!

I may not be done with holidays as tomorrow is National Fast Food Day. I feel like writing a Retail Apocalypse post. Stay tuned to see if I follow through.