People are questioning Michigan State Rep Joe Bellino's motivation on his plan to kill the Michigan Bottle Return law.

It was announced earlier this week that legislation has been introduced that would scrap the Michigan Bottle Return law.  That was met with many unhappy comments on our facebook page, but one stood out from Willem Renzema,

What a shock, the guy proposing this bill got tons of money from an organization that would benefit from the deposit going away (because they have to pick up the returns):
http://mcfn.org/donor-tracking?candidate=68
Michigan Beer & Wine Wholesalers Association PAC, $9,166

I'm not accusing the Mr Bellino of taking kickbacks to kill our beloved law.  I'm not trying to get sued.  However, it's our responsibility as Michiganders to question everything.  We can't say for sure that State Rep Bellino's legislation is connected to his second largest donor in 2017.  What we can say for sure is the reaction to his plan is not positive.

Lori Blakely

Bad idea. People don't take care of some of their stuff now.. it would become horrible.

 

Kim Meiser Frank

Bad bad idea. Too much littering already and cans & bottles will end up in a landfill. Also it says recycling is down, well I thought returning my empties was recycling. Am I wrong?  
I would recycle if I didn’t have to pay for it. Too many bills already and not enough income. When I lived in GR and Lansing you had to pay for city bags or tags for garbage but curbside recycling was free. It gave residents incentive to recycle because less paying for bags of tags if it could be recycled instead of bulking up your trash

Sandy McCarn

Bad idea! I drive school bus and I can see all those cans last year after routes we went and collected almost 50 dollars on one road!

Grace Gonzales

The decline in recyclingisn't due to bottle/can recycling but rather to increased guidelines/restrictions. My mother was an avid recycler - WAS - until the latest increase in restrictions. It's just too much! She's stopped now since she feels that it's too inhibiting. If ppl like her who ENJOYED recycling are fed up with a page-worth of guidelines, can you image how the casual recycler would feel when shown a list of rules?

Darcy Henning

Every single container should have a deposit. Glass, metal, plastic. Milk, water, juice, soap, cleaners, soup cans, coffee canisters, baby food, spaghetti sauce. All of it. You want people to recycle, give them incentive.

Amanda Ruimveld

We funded around 20% of a Graduation Night function by returning cans that people donated. I would hate to see all the bottles and cans everywhere.

To be fair, out of the dozens of comments there were a couple that supported the possible change.

Alan Pletcher

Yes!!! Biggest government scam there is. There is always littering of these. I see it on us 131 and I94 all summer long. Biggest hassle is returning them.

Jessica Cooper

I hope it does! I just tried to take bottles back to Hardings the other day and they didn't accept half of them. These are brands that they specifically sell and that I bought from them. It was beyond frustrating. I'd rather just recycle them and not pay bottle deposit.

 

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