Michigan Considers Adding Juice, Water to Bottle Bill

The Michigan United Conservation Clubs is looking to expand the state’s existing bottle bill to cover juice and water bottles, as the state currently recycles only 20 percent of its plastic water bottles.

Michigan is the only state in the U.S. to include a 10 cent deposit on the purchase of beverages including soda cans and beer bottles. Recycling these containers provides a refund to encourage recycling, and in Michigan has resulted in 97 percent recycling participation for qualified containers.

Among the issues at play over whether to increase coverage of Michigan’s bottle bill:

• The increased responsibility by Michigan grocers to handle and sort the new bottles
• Whether the 10 cent deposit will be enough to cover costs associated with more recycling
• A potential increase in “recycling fraud” from out-of-state residents, since no neighboring states offer a financial reward for recycling containers

It will require a 75 percent approval from the Michigan legislature to amend the original law, passed in 1976. Grocers are looking for an amendment that requires Michigan containers to have special marking designed to reject out-of-state bottles and cans.

You can recycle beverage containers in your area using Earth 911.