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Michigan Beer & Wine Wholesalers Association Urges Michiganders to Return Bottles and Cans

Michigan Business Network
November 11, 2021 10:00 AM

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New MLive documentary highlights the importance of getting your dimes back

LANSING — The Michigan Beer & Wine Wholesalers Association (MB&WWA) today urged Michiganders to get back into the habit and return their bottles and cans to grocery stores and local retailers. The plea follows the release of a new MLive documentary that highlights the importance of getting your dimes back.

“While Michigan’s bottle deposit system isn’t perfect, it has succeeded in keeping cans and bottles out of lakes, rivers, streams, greenspaces and from littering our roadways,” said Spencer Nevins, president of the Michigan Beer & Wine Wholesalers Association. “The COVID-19 pandemic revealed the flaws in our system and many Michiganders stopped taking their bottles and cans back. We’re urging them to get back in the habit, return their bottles and cans, and help protect our land and Great Lakes.”

In the initial months of the COVID-19 pandemic, Michigan’s bottle deposit system shut down. Once it reopened, there was a backlog of containers sitting in people’s garages and at many charity locations. It took months of distributors and recyclers working at 140% of capacity to work through the backlog. While the system caught up with demand last year, Michiganders haven’t returned to their pre-pandemic habits of returning bottles and cans.

“The fact that fewer Michiganders are returning bottles and cans this year as compared to years past is troubling, because it means those returnables are piling up in landfills or tossed into lakes and streams or along the road,” Nevins said. “Our bottle deposit system can only be successful if we all work together, and that starts with consumers returning their bottles and cans.”

Michigan’s beer distributors are pioneers in using energy efficiency and cutting-edge conservation, recycling, and environmental practices to reduce energy waste, and pollution and protect our air and Great Lakes. As an industry, distributors spend over $60 million per year just to operate Michigan’s bottle deposit system.

The MB&WWA represents nearly 50 beer and wine distributors throughout Michigan. The association is recognized as one of the strongest business trade associations in the state and one of the alcohol beverage industry’s most progressive state trade associations.

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Michigan Business Network is an online broadcasting company that provides knowledge, news, and insights into Michigan’s businesses, industries, and economy.