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Michigan House passes bottle return fund legislation
Anna Liz Nichols
LANSING Legislation to compensate beverage companies to update their recycling equipment using unreturned recyclables deposit funds passed Tuesday in the Michigan House.
Unredeemed money from the 10-cent per container bottle return is currently divided between the state and retailers operating bottle return locations. The state s Cleanup and Redevelopment Trust Fund, which mainly funds cleanup efforts for certain contamination sites, gets 75% of the money and 25% is given to the retailers.
The proposed legislation would offer beverage distributors a half-cent per bottle tax credit for every container eligible for the bottle return, a measure that would cost the state $20 million annually, according to the House Fiscal Agency. The legislation would also allow distributors to receive funds from the unredeemed bottle returns if the annual value is greater than $50 million through 2022.
State environmental officials say it’s too early to call it a windfall. That’s because some portion of the money that showed up on the state’s year-end balance sheet will likely be offset by lower-than-average revenue next year, as Michiganders liquidate stockpiles of empties that they didn’t get around to returning in 2020.
The glut of bottle bill revenue comes as a GOP-majority House budget recommendation proposes slashing the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy’s overall budget by nearly 70 percent a move that is unlikely to gain approval from Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat.
Under current law, 75 percent of revenue from unredeemed bottles which in 2019 totaled $43 million goes to the state Cleanup and Redevelopment Trust Fund, where much of it supports EGLE’s efforts to clean up and redevelop contaminated sites. The other 25 percent goes to retailers who sell bottled drinks to offset their cost of collecting returns.
Michigan House passes bottle return fund legislation
Michigan House passes bottle return fund legislation
Anna Liz Nichols
Print
Michigan s bottle deposit redemption rate has been in steady decline since 2010. The rate dropped below 90 percent for the first time in 2018, when it was 89 percent. It dipped slightly more to 88.7 percent in 2019.
LANSING Legislation to compensate beverage companies to update their recycling equipment using unreturned recyclables deposit funds passed Tuesday in the Michigan House.
Unredeemed money from the 10-cent per container bottle return is currently divided between the state and retailers operating bottle return locations. The state s Cleanup and Redevelopment Trust Fund, which mainly funds cleanup efforts for certain contamination sites, gets 75% of the money and 25% is given to the retailers.