Michiganders aren’t back in the habit of returning their bottle and cans, and the Michigan Beer & Wine Wholesalers Association (MB&WWA) is urging them to make the effort.
The bottle deposit system has caught up with the backlog of bottles and cans produced when the system shut down during the pandemic, but numbers are down for current returns.
Spencer Nevins, President of the Michigan Beer & Wine Wholesalers Association, said, “The fact that fewer Michiganders are returning bottles and cans this year as compared to years past is troubling, because it means those returnables are piling up in landfills or tossed into lakes and streams or along the road.”
According the MB&WWA, beer and wine distributors spend over $60 million each year to operate Michigan’s bottle deposit system. Currently, when bottles and cans do not get returned, the money goes into Michigan’s Cleanup and Redevelopment Trust Fund and back to retailers.
If you’re not ready to tackle returning your stockpile of cans yourself, you can donate them to United Way of St. Clair County until Monday, November 15th :
Reporting for WGRT – Jessie Wiegand
