Michigan’s 10-Cent Bottle Law Could See Its Biggest Change Yet

Growing up in Durand as a kid in the 80s, I remember heading out with my friends on our bikes and going on a scavenger hunt throughout the neighborhood for pop cans and bottles. We would ride through the parks and car washes looking for what we considered gold. Then we would ride to the local party store and hand the clerk our Hamady sacks of empty cans.

Childhood Memories of Collecting Cans

Back then, the clerk would ask how many cans we had. We told them and they would give us the deposit back, which we would immediately spend on candy bars, suckers, and pop. It never occurred to me how simple it was to return cans back then.

Not to mention that Michigan is on a short list of states offering 10 cents per can or bottle from any carbonated beverage, while other states only offer less. In fact, Kramer and Neuman from the TV show Seinfeld attempted to take cans from New York to Michigan to make a profit.

Michigan’s 10-Cent Incentive and Its Impact

Prior to Michigan introducing the 10-cent incentive to return bottles and cans, parks and other places were loaded with trash, and most of the mess was those pesky “empties.” But with the opportunity to make money off of cleaning up litter at 10 cents a piece, parks, train and bus stations were suddenly a lot cleaner. I’m not old enough to remember that, but my best friend who is a bit older than me recalls being 8 or 9 and being stunned when everything seemed to be cleaned up overnight.

Today’s Redemption Hassles

But after recalling bike rides to the car wash in the 80s, I found myself frustrated when returning cans in 2025. Having to load them one at a time into a machine, while some cans I bought from that store can’t be identified for some reason, and others won’t be accepted because they weren’t sold there. Don’t forget about the empty plastic water bottles that people put in with pop cans that should be included but aren’t.

By the time you’re done, it seems that half of what you brought in to return won’t be accepted. Then you just toss them in the trash. Another good friend of mine gave up on returning cans years ago. So is there a better way in 2025?

A System in Decline

Turns out, a lot of Michiganders are asking that same question. Take Jen Conine, who hauled a bag of cans more than nine hours home from a camping trip because there was nowhere to recycle them. The inconvenience paid off—she walked out of Meijer with about $25—but it showed how clunky the system has become.

When Michigan’s Bottle Bill passed in 1976, it cleaned up roadsides overnight and redemption rates once hovered close to 100%. But today, that number has slipped to around 70%, and nearly half of all beverage containers sold in the state, like water bottles and juice, aren’t even covered by the law.

The Push to Modernize the Bottle Bill

That’s why Senator Sean McCann has been pushing to modernize the program. He’s reintroduced legislation that would put the question on the 2026 ballot, asking voters whether to add water bottles and create universal redemption so people could return cans to any store, not just the one they bought them from. McCann says it could divert more than two billion bottles from landfills each year. Retailers warn it would be costly and messy, but advocates argue Michigan risks falling behind other states with bulk drop-off centers and expanded returns. As the law nears its 50th anniversary, the debate over whether to overhaul the Bottle Bill is only heating up.