07-16-2008, 08:18 PM
If you are a die hard Seinfeld watcher, you know that Michigan has a $.10 deposit on all carbonated beverage containers (Kramer and Newman tried smuggling a postal truck full of empties into MI). That means when you buy a 12 pack of Coke or Bud you pay the price + $1.20 for the deposit. You drink your Coke and bring the cans or bottles back to the store, run them through a machine and get a credit for the $1.20. There is (was) a bill in the Michigan Congress to expand this "bottle bill" to include water, juice, iced tea, etc. containers.
While the original bottle bill cleaned up the roads (if there is a can on the side of the road, it will not be there long, at least around Holland) expanding it would make it worse. I care about the environment and I recycle my glass and plastic, but I don't want to have to go back to the store, stand in line to wait for a machine to get the $2.40 deposit back that I shelled out for a bonus pack of bottled water that only cost me $4 to start. Not to mention the mingers from border states like Indiana and Ohio that bring their empties back to Michigan for the extra meth money.
Maybe I'm late to the party on this, but what do other states do to recycle besides a deposit?
While the original bottle bill cleaned up the roads (if there is a can on the side of the road, it will not be there long, at least around Holland) expanding it would make it worse. I care about the environment and I recycle my glass and plastic, but I don't want to have to go back to the store, stand in line to wait for a machine to get the $2.40 deposit back that I shelled out for a bonus pack of bottled water that only cost me $4 to start. Not to mention the mingers from border states like Indiana and Ohio that bring their empties back to Michigan for the extra meth money.
Maybe I'm late to the party on this, but what do other states do to recycle besides a deposit?