A bill that would let voters decide if Michigan should expand bottle deposits to include water bottles and other containers went through a Senate committee on Thursday, but the future of the bill is still uncertain.
Currently, bottle deposits are only required on beverage containers for soft drinks, soda water, carbonated natural or mineral water, or other nonalcoholic carbonated drink; beer, ale, or other malt drink; or a mixed wine drink or mixed spirit drinks.
Senate Bill 1112, introduced by Sen. Sean McCann in November, seeks to let voters decide on several changes to the bottle law.
One of the changes includes requiring retailers who accept bottle returns to accept all products, even if they don’t sell that specific product. It would also expand the deposit to include all beverage containers one gallon or less, including water bottles, but with several exceptions including milk and infant formulas.
Senate Bill 1113, introduced at the same time, and tied to Senate Bill 1112 would create a Beverage Container Handling Fund, which would include funding for system improvements, new equipment and technology costs to expand capacity, operations and equipment costs for pilot programs, research grants, consumer education, enforcement of the Bottle Bill, EGLE marketing, EGLE staffing, and LARA staffing and programs.
The Committee on Energy and Environment reviewed the bills and released its analysis on Thursday, Dec. 5, 2024, finding that the bills would have an “indeterminate fiscal impact on state government and on local units of government.”
It’s unclear if the bill will be addressed in the “lame duck” Senate session.
What would the bottle law expansion include?
If the bottle law expansion bill did pass through the Senate and the House, it would send the question to the voters in the 2026 general election. The highlighted changes include:
Universal redemption
Under the expansion, consumers would be able to return beverage containers to any store where containers with a deposit are sold. Stores will be required to accept all containers, even if they don’t sell that specific drink.
Deposit added to more containers
The law would expand the deposit to include all beverage containers one gallon or less, including water bottles. There would not be a deposit placed on milk, infant formulas, and fruit and vegetable juice in containers one half-gallon or greater, and freezable containers.
Data transparency
Data regarding the performance of the program would be made public. This data would include the rate of return, types of containers in which a deposit was initiated by county, types of containers for which a deposit was redeemed by county, and the value, contributions, and expenditures of various funds this act would support.