The days of paying a 10¢ deposit on all your carbonated beverage bottles and cans will be over if legislation proposed by a Detroit-area Republican gets passed in the lame duck session. Representative Joe Bellino of Monroe says the deposit isn’t helping the state’s overall recycling numbers.
“We think because we have the bottle bill we do a great job with recycling,” says Bellino. “When we look at the stats, we stink around the Midwest and nationally when it comes to total recycling.”
He says pop and beer bottles and cans are only a small amount of what can be recycled.
“We do a great job with bottles and cans, but that’s less than 13% of the recycling that could be done. We need to incentivize recycling and get more recycling centers.”
Bellino’s bills would end the bottle deposit law at the end of 2022 if it gets passed. The law was enacted in 1976.
