LANSING, MI (WHTC-AM/FM) – State residents who have had deposit collectable bottles and cans piling up at their homes during the coronavirus outbreak can start returning them on June 15th.
Officials of the Michigan Food and Beverage Association estimate the total refund due to be collected could reach $80 million, although some consumers have been told by staff of a statewide grocery store chain that the retailers would compel all bottle and can returns to central collection sites, even after the end of the Governor’s “Safer at Home” emergency order restrictions.
That would run contrary to state law in which the retailer must accept the returns directly, according to House Representative Jim Lilly from Holland’s North Side. “It seems like, unless the state law was going to be changed, it would be hard to get people to go along with making that change such that those local retailers weren’t responsible for collecting the bottles and cans anymore,” he said Monday during his monthly appearance on “WHTC Talk of the Town.”
Retail outlets who accept bottle and can returns can limit the payout at any single visit to $25.
