LANSING, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – The state of Michigan offers residents an opportunity to earn a little extra cash on Thanksgiving food packaging by returning empty bottles for a 10-cent rebate.

Michigan is one of only 10 states with “bottle bills” and the only state that offers a dime instead of a nickel on smaller bottles.

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The legislation was signed in 1973, making Michigan the third state to introduce bottle bills.

Eligible containers include soft drinks, beer, carbonated water, and canned cocktails. Consumers can return up to $25 in value of used bottles per day, after which additional returns are at the retailer’s discretion. Containers must have been purchased in Michigan.

According to Michael Noel, Governmental Affairs Manager at vending machine manufacturer TOMRA, bottle bills are similar to paying “rent” on drink containers.

“Bottle bills work by adding a small deposit on top of the price of a beverage — such as those in plastic and glass bottles and aluminum cans — which is refunded to the consumer when they return the empty bottle and can for recycling,” Noel said.

Bottle bills increase drink container recycling rates by around 35% on average, according to data from the Container Recycling Institute.

In Michigan, beverage containers eligible for rebates must be either recycled or redeemed. Since 2004, it has been against the law for beverage containers to be disposed of in a landfill and illegal for any person to knowingly deliver these containers to a landfill.

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Unclaimed bottle deposits are returned to the state through a process called escheat, which uses the money to fund the Bottle Bill Enforcement Fund and several pollution prevention and cleanup funds.

During the pandemic, Michigan became the only state to institute a temporary ban on returning bottles and cans to help stop the spread of COVID-19. The ban was reversed in October 2020, but some argued this may have caused irreversible changes in the recycling habits of Michigan residents. Rebate participation rates dropped from 89% before the pandemic to below 76% in 2021.

To combat declining participation rates, Michigan lawmakers introduced legislation earlier this year that would have expanded the bottle bill to include a 10-cent rebate on all non-carbonated drink containers except milk cartons.

“It is popular, I would say across the state people are typically very excited about the expansion,” said Rep. Christine Morse, who announced the bills alongside Sen. Sean McCann. “A lot of people think we should be recycling water bottles.”

The legislation has not been signed into law. In 2022, participation rates rose slightly, up to nearly 76%.

In a popular Reddit forum post on a Michigan thread, one user complained that the value of bottle deposit rebates has deflated by 20%.

“My parents used to talk about finding a few cans and it being enough to go out for a movie,” the user wrote. “Back then at movie prices of $3, that would be 60 cans total. Today, at $9.50, that would be 190 cans.”

Other users argued that since the rebate is just that—a refund on money the consumer has already paid—there may be little reason to increase the amount.

“I just want to put my cans/bottles in the recycle like nearly every other state in this country,” another user wrote. “I recently returned cans to Meijer, and nearly 20% of what got returned wasn’t accepted … [and] went right into the trash.”