Michigan lawmakers are proposing a big change to the state’s can and bottle return policy.
House Bill 5421 was introduced last week, proposing new rules for when businesses are required to take bottle returns, and when consumers can return them.
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Currently, retailers who sell bottles and cans are required to accept returns, at anytime. The House bill would set time parameters around when retailers have to accept returns -- retailers would be required to accept returns from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. or during their posted business hours.
The change is aimed at making sure retailers aren’t offering limited hours for bottle returns. The writer of the bill, Michigan State Rep. Julie Rogers, D-Kalamazoo, told WOOD-TV that many businesses starting taking returns during very short timeframes after the pandemic.
“I’ve even seen a small sign in one of the windows in a Kalamazoo store that said ‘12 to 2.’ … For most working people, myself included, that is very difficult,” Rogers told WOOD-TV. “So it’s certainly not the intention of the bill to require stores to open additional hours. If you’re, for example, open from 9 to 5, then those would be the hours you would be required to take the bottles and cans back.”
The bill doesn’t change what retailers have to accept in returns -- it’ll still be whatever they sell. Another bill introduced last year would require stores to accept returns regardless of what they sell, but it hasn’t been advanced.
---> FAQ on Michigan’s bottle deposit law
The Michigan Bottle Deposit Law (or Bottle Bill) was initiated in 1976. It is a petition to initiate legislation to provide for the use of returnable containers for soft drinks, soda water, carbonated natural or mineral water or other non-alcoholic carbonated drink; beer, ale or other malt drink of whatever alcoholic content.