State Sen. Joe Bellino does not expect the bill to pass. Nic Rowan | Collegian 

A bill in the Michigan legislature would require businesses to accept bottle returns between 8 a.m. and 11 p.m, or whenever the establishment is open in that period.

Michiganders can redeem bottles and cans for ten cents apiece, returning empty containers to any local business that sells them. State law currently does not have a minimum time period that businesses must take plastic containers for redemption.

House Bill 5421, sponsored by state Rep. Julie Rogers, D-Kalamazoo, would require local businesses to accept empty containers between 8 a.m. and 11 p.m., or during their open hours within that range.

Brett Boyd, president and owner of Hillsdale Market House, said the law would have a minimal impact on his business, since the store already accepts bottle returns throughout the day.

But Boyd also said that creating standalone recycling centers would be preferable to the current system of redeeming bottles through businesses.

“I wish the legislature would focus its energies on eliminating bottle returns at supermarkets and instead take another look at using standalone redemption centers,” Boyd said. “Supermarkets with fresh food are not the right place for redeeming bottles.”

Boyd said the state compensation Market House receives does not cover more than 5% of the cost of maintaining, cleaning, and operating bottle return machines. 

Market House staff must clean the machines several times per day, Boyd said.

“Our own staff does an amazing job cleaning and sanitizing our bottle return machines,” Boyd said.

State Sen. Joe Bellino, R-Monroe, owned a small party store for more than 20 years that accepted bottle returns but did not use a machine. 

“This law that they’re trying to pass, I think it is BS,” Bellino said. “Because it won’t affect the big retailers because they won’t change their hours of taking empties back. But with guys like these small retailers with just one or two or three or four employees, it’s hard to do kickback empties whenever you are open.”

Andrea Bitely, the Michigan Retailers Association’s vice president for marketing and communications, said the MRA supports Rogers’ bill because it defines when businesses must accept bottle returns while giving them time to take machines offline to be cleaned. 

“Although those machines are built to withstand sticky, liquid messiness,” Bitely said, “the ability to have time to power those machines down and do a thorough cleaning of them is actually very, very supported by larger grocers who have multiple of those machines, or smaller, mid-sized grocers who may have one or two of those machines.”

Bitely said bottles can contaminate surfaces and products at supermarkets.

“Our grocers are constantly trying to do maintenance and make sure things are clean,” Bitely said. “You’re putting vegetables or a child in that cart and then they’re licking it or you’re eating a head of lettuce that might have something gross on it.”

The bill is unlikely to become law since the Michigan Beverage Containers Initiated Law of 1976 was created by a ballot initiative, and any change to the law requires a three quarters majority in both chambers of the state legislature.

“It’ll never pass,” Bellino said. “It’ll need a three-quarter vote of the legislature to change the law, and that won’t happen at all.”