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The law in Michigan (and I think New York and other states are similar) is retailers must allow returns of up to 250 containers, but can choose to accept no mor

The law in Michigan (and I think New York and other states are similar) is retailers must allow returns of up to 250 containers, but can choose to accept no more than that. I think the reason is to prevent people from buying uncrushed scrap cans from neighboring states without a deposit system, and returning them in a state that does have one. The other big annoyance in Michigan is retailers only have to accept returns for the drinks they sell. So you have to keep track of what store a container came from, because if only that one store sells it, only that one store will accept its return. A lot of times if the machine doesn't take a few of the containers, I will just give up and throw them away, because the stores don't provide recycling bins which is even more frustrating. Or, people will just leave the cans they couldn't return on top of the machines in case anyone else wants to try tracking down where they can return it. Also, the law says any retailer must accept returns, but in reality only supermarkets with the money for the machines do. Smaller stores like gas stations generally don't.

namibj 4y ago
Oh, we bundle the deposit to the can, and trying to trick the machine into accepting something that doesn't actually have the deposit on it would be fraud (you'd get caught if you'd do it at a scale where it'd be worth the effort, so it doesn't really happen). I think small vendors may get away with only accepting what they sell, but supermarkets here have to accept the _types_ of deposit-laden containers they sell. So if they sell Monster Energy cans they also have to accept Rockstar Energy cans, and I'm pretty sure also all the other normal aluminium beverage cans. For reusable bottles it's a bigger effect regarding the "only the types of containers they sell", as a shop without any glass bottles wouldn't have the infrastructure to handle more than individual quantities of reusable glass beer bottles (mostly the matching crates).

namibj 4y ago

Oh, we bundle the deposit to the can, and trying to trick the machine into accepting something that doesn't actually have the deposit on it would be fraud (you'd get caught if you'd do it at a scale where it'd be worth the effort, so it doesn't really happen). I think small vendors may get away with only accepting what they sell, but supermarkets here have to accept the _types_ of deposit-laden containers they sell. So if they sell Monster Energy cans they also have to accept Rockstar Energy cans, and I'm pretty sure also all the other normal aluminium beverage cans. For reusable bottles it's a bigger effect regarding the "only the types of containers they sell", as a shop without any glass bottles wouldn't have the infrastructure to handle more than individual quantities of reusable glass beer bottles (mostly the matching crates).