LANSING, MI – The Michigan Beverage Association today thanked Speaker Matt Hall, sponsor Representative Joe Aragona, Representative Angela Witwer and members of the state House for the overwhelming support and passage of bipartisan legislation that supports the infrastructure required to operate Michigan’s existing beverage container deposit system.
House Bill 5517 provides a targeted tax credit to help distributors maintain and modernize the infrastructure needed to pick up, store, clean, sort, crush, transport and recycle containers returned for the 10-cent deposit.
The legislation provides Michigan’s beverage distributors with a tax credit equal to ½ cent per returnable container sold – a modest, responsible fix that addresses a decades-old funding imbalance within the current deposit system.
Nearly all of Michigan’s non-alcoholic beverages with a deposit are made in Michigan by Michigan workers. In addition, distributors of both beer and non-alcoholic beverages employ Michgian drivers, warehouse staff, mechanics, and processing teams who carry out the daily work required under the state’s deposit law.
“Michigan’s beverage makers and distributors have invested significantly in deposit return program infrastructure,”, including new processing lines in metro Detroit and Grand Rapids, purchasing lower emission transportation vehicles, and much more,” said Derek Bajema, President of the Michigan Beverage Association. “This legislation ensures we can continue to make the investments needed to carry out the costly state-imposed system of bottle deposit returns.”
Michigan’s Bottle Bill requires distributors to collect and process returned containers. For the first 13 years of the Bottle Bill, unclaimed deposits were used by distributors to build and operate the program on behalf of the State, with huge compliance costs.
In 1989 the Legislature changed the Bottle Bill into an unfunded government mandate on distributors, withdrawing investment in the infrastructure and operating expenses needed to make the Bottle Bill work.
House Bill 5517 passed today with an overwhelming bipartisan 94 to 12 majority. The bill now goes to the state Senate for consideration.
Headquartered in the heart of the state Capital, the Michigan Beverage Association is a nonprofit trade organization representing the producers and distributors of carbonated beverages who have a manufacturing presence in the state of Michigan. Learn more at MIBev.org.
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