Is Michigan's bottle deposit law too much?
A buck and a quarter a year is the estimated loss consumers ultimately bear because of the the bottle law.
Scales gets a H/T on the video – And he may agree with a repeal of the law, and I can understand a number of the reasons. I suspect the actual cost is in fact MUCH higher because of welfare fraud, as well as compliance which requires automation, added employment, and often extra facilities.
However, in my life, I have watched a change in the road side debris that happened IMMEDIATELY following the passage of the law in the beginning. I was delivering the Lansing State Journal, the Free Press as a paperboy in the late 70s and spent much time biking the side roads and streets. When the law was passed, no more were bottles tossed, and those which were found a home in the bags which once carried newsprint door to door. This resulted in less trash overall, and the areas I was in began to simply look a little nicer.
And now, would it be too much to expand the law to plastic water bottles as they become the new ‘tossable’ we might find littering our roadways? Or should we throw up our hands and give up trying to encourage less piggishness?
The legislature may pass this on to the governor’s desk, where he probably would not sign it.
Your thoughts?