[Bydand]

Originally Posted by magellan

I can say I remember as a kid how much of a difference it made with trash in the ditches. It dropped dramatically.

100% agree with you on this matter. We used to pick up cans along the road, then set them up to run through them with our bikes. Some days we could get enough to go all the way across the road 3 or 4 cans high and 2 or 3 rows deep. We lived out in the country and during the day there wasn't much traffic, but a lot of people used our road to go between the towns (so they could drink and drive) on their way to work then back home. As soon as the bottle deposit came into effect, the cans were gone.

[detwahDJ]

Originally Posted by Bydand

100% agree with you on this matter. We used to pick up cans along the road, then set them up to run through them with our bikes. Some days we could get enough to go all the way across the road 3 or 4 cans high and 2 or 3 rows deep. We lived out in the country and during the day there wasn't much traffic, but a lot of people used our road to go between the towns (so they could drink and drive) on their way to work then back home. As soon as the bottle deposit came into effect, the cans were gone.

Something that stuck with me over the years: hiking down a scenic path to an Au Sable River overlook only to find a trash heap of bottles at the bottom (yeah, somebody partied and ran). Even though this has been curtailed somewhat, there is still more out there - especially plastics. Seems like anti-littering laws don't work real well, but $$$$$ enticement works better.

[HomeIsWhere...]

Originally Posted by topher5150

I think Seinfeld did an episode about trying to return bottles in Michigan.

Sure did!


Seinfeld: The Michigan Deposit Bottle Scam - YouTube

[jmlowman]

I like the way that it's done here in CA. Regardless of where in buy pop/beer, I can take the containers to a redemption center. The one that I use is closest to the house, and is actually in the scrap business. None of this taking the containers to a temporary structure outside a supermarket, then getting a receipt and having to go into a store where we don't shop, anyway, to stand in line and get a refund. I take the materials in, bottles in one container and cans in another, have it weighed, get a slip and take it to the attractive lady at the window and walk away with cash.

When we lived in Michigan, I always hated that I had to remember to take certain brands back to the store where I bought them.

[magellan]

Originally Posted by jmlowman

I like the way that it's done here in CA. Regardless of where in buy pop/beer, I can take the containers to a redemption center. The one that I use is closest to the house, and is actually in the scrap business. None of this taking the containers to a temporary structure outside a supermarket, then getting a receipt and having to go into a store where we don't shop, anyway, to stand in line and get a refund. I take the materials in, bottles in one container and cans in another, have it weighed, get a slip and take it to the attractive lady at the window and walk away with cash.

When we lived in Michigan, I always hated that I had to remember to take certain brands back to the store where I bought them.

I have never had the experience here that you describe. We primarily shop at Meijer, so we take the bottles and cans back to the store, to their permanent enclosed section of the store, run them through the sorting machines which takes on average 2.15 minutes , get a slip, and go shopping in the store. You get the credit when you check out. Or you can just take the slips to the cashier and get cash.

Attractive lady at the window? Interesting.

[cosmicrowbar]

The bottle/can deposit law has been a great thing for Michigan. After the howling from retailers (of which I was one) about the burden of returnables died out, all of a sudden high-tech deposit returnable machines appeared everywhere, and over the years they've improved enormously. It's just not much of an issue anymore, as technology has adapted and provided solutions to the problems.

Go to a state without a deposit law and see the aluminum, glass and plastic crapola strewn all over the landscape...it's a remarkable change. And this layer of discarded trash leads to behavior that makes it much worse. My second "home state" of New Mexico has so much junk laying along roadsides that it's shocking to me as a native Michigander.

Michigan did the right thing, and, as beverage choices have grown and changed, the deposit law needs to be also be changed to include the shelves full of "power drinks" teas, Gator-whatevers and other stuff filling the cooler shelves of countless convenience stores. Will it cost those bottlers a little more to change in order to meet regulations? Probably...but not as much as it costs our state and local governments to pick up all their junk from hundreds of thousands of miles of roadsides....not to mention landfills, etc.
In the early days I was an opponent, but I soon wised up and realized that bottle deposit was a great thing for Michigan and would be a great thing nationwide. It works, and a drive down the highway proves it.

[scorpio516]

Originally Posted by jmlowman

I like the way that it's done here in CA. Regardless of where in buy pop/beer, I can take the containers to a redemption center. The one that I use is closest to the house, and is actually in the scrap business. None of this taking the containers to a temporary structure outside a supermarket, then getting a receipt and having to go into a store where we don't shop, anyway, to stand in line and get a refund. I take the materials in, bottles in one container and cans in another, have it weighed, get a slip and take it to the attractive lady at the window and walk away with cash.

When we lived in Michigan, I always hated that I had to remember to take certain brands back to the store where I bought them.

I had the exact opposite experience with CRV. You pay $x, you get back $y, and X > Y. But first, you've got find a redemption center, they aren't at grocery stores, but instead just some shack in an empty parking lot. If they don't just give cash, they'll give you a slip only redeemable at someplace like Raley's where I never shopped.
It was such a pain in the butt, I just threw everything away and ate the CRV. Roseville recycled all the trash anyway.

Mass's system is almost identical to MI, only just a nickle per can.

You can technically return New England pop bottles in Michigan (Maine, VT, CT, MA all have nickle deposits, I think Rhode Island and New Hampshire just sells deposit-labeled bottles anyway). I've bought something to drink here on driving trips back to Michigan and Meijer's would take them. However, it is illegal, and a potentially a felony. I remember back when the automated machines went in, they had signs all over saying bringing in out-of-state bottles was a felony.

I know Maine has deposit on juice bottles too!

[Bydand]

Originally Posted by scorpio516

I had the exact opposite experience with CRV. You pay $x, you get back $y, and X > Y. But first, you've got find a redemption center, they aren't at grocery stores, but instead just some shack in an empty parking lot. If they don't just give cash, they'll give you a slip only redeemable at someplace like Raley's where I never shopped.
It was such a pain in the butt, I just threw everything away and ate the CRV. Roseville recycled all the trash anyway.

Mass's system is almost identical to MI, only just a nickle per can.

You can technically return New England pop bottles in Michigan (Maine, VT, CT, MA all have nickle deposits, I think Rhode Island and New Hampshire just sells deposit-labeled bottles anyway). I've bought something to drink here on driving trips back to Michigan and Meijer's would take them. However, it is illegal, and a potentially a felony. I remember back when the automated machines went in, they had signs all over saying bringing in out-of-state bottles was a felony.

I know Maine has deposit on juice bottles too!

I lived in Maine for almost 20 years and there is a deposit on any drink container I can think of, including liquor (15 cents on the hard stuff.) It is one of two things I think Maine does better than Michigan although you have to take the cans/bottles/jugs to a redemption center which is a first rate PITA. The other thing Maine does better is snow removal. Other than those two though... there is a reason I am back in Michigan and not still out there .

[magellan]

Originally Posted by cosmicrowbar

The bottle/can deposit law has been a great thing for Michigan. After the howling from retailers (of which I was one) about the burden of returnables died out, all of a sudden high-tech deposit returnable machines appeared everywhere, and over the years they've improved enormously. It's just not much of an issue anymore, as technology has adapted and provided solutions to the problems.

Go to a state without a deposit law and see the aluminum, glass and plastic crapola strewn all over the landscape...it's a remarkable change. And this layer of discarded trash leads to behavior that makes it much worse. My second "home state" of New Mexico has so much junk laying along roadsides that it's shocking to me as a native Michigander.

Michigan did the right thing, and, as beverage choices have grown and changed, the deposit law needs to be also be changed to include the shelves full of "power drinks" teas, Gator-whatevers and other stuff filling the cooler shelves of countless convenience stores. Will it cost those bottlers a little more to change in order to meet regulations? Probably...but not as much as it costs our state and local governments to pick up all their junk from hundreds of thousands of miles of roadsides....not to mention landfills, etc.
In the early days I was an opponent, but I soon wised up and realized that bottle deposit was a great thing for Michigan and would be a great thing nationwide. It works, and a drive down the highway proves it.

They have gone high tech. The Meijer by us in Grand Rapids is one of their "prototype" new layouts, and the bottle and can return is a separate room on the front of the building (nicely adorned where you barely notice it), with a tile floor and drains that the workers can easily clean, a big deep set of sinks where you can wash your hands or the cans easily, the a large number of the latest machines that scan and read quickly. I can get through a cart full of returnables in less than 5 minutes now. And I have yet to wait in line to return bottles and cans. It's pretty slick. And the stench of the return room doesn't waft into the store like it used to.

It's the little section of the store under the giant Meijer sign.

[jmlowman]

Originally Posted by magellan

I have never had the experience here that you describe. We primarily shop at Meijer, so we take the bottles and cans back to the store, to their permanent enclosed section of the store, run them through the sorting machines which takes on average 2.15 minutes , get a slip, and go shopping in the store. You get the credit when you check out. Or you can just take the slips to the cashier and get cash.

Attractive lady at the window? Interesting.

That's fine, because you shop mostly at Meijer, so no problem returning what they sell.
Bear in mind that I was just a kid, picking up deposit bottles in the 50s, for some extra pocket money. No idea where the bottle was purchased, so the nearby Hamady Brother market would take some brands and not others. I''ll still swear by the redemption center that I use here in CA.

Yes, I think she's the owner's wife.