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By Brooke Meier
Bottle bills move to house floor in Michigan

In an attempt to protect the state from bottle deposit fraud, the state House and Senate have been asked to take up a package of bills to prevent exploitation of the bottle deposit law.

The five-bill package introduced in the state House was reported out a House committee on Thursday, Nov. 13. Each bill would require a three-fourths vote of support to be enacted into law.

Dave Nyberg, resource policy specialist for the Michigan United Conservation Clubs (MUCC), said his organization supports the bills but expressed reservations about the legislation at committee hearings.

"We supported the package on it's face," he said. "The package is a good effort to try and address the fraud problem but we don't know if this is the most efficient way to do that."

The bills, approved by the House Great Lakes and Environment Committee, would require retailers in counties that border other states to re-tool their can and bottle return machines so they reject containers not sold in Michigan. An ink dot would be required on all returnable containers sold in the state.

The bills also increase penalties for people who illegally redeem bottles and cans brought in from other states, as well as for retailers who knowingly accept them.

The bills also allocate $500,000 from the state to help retailers pay for the retrofitting of container return machines.

Nyberg said the bills would only require the re-tooling of beverage container machines in bordering counties because they are the ones who suffer the most from the exploitation of the bottle return law.

There was heavy opposition to the bills while in committee from the Michigan Grocers Association, the Michigan Soft Drink Association and other groups affected by bottle fraud, according to Nyberg.

He said the MUCC and the groups cited above would like to see tighter enforcement of the container return laws to help curb the fraud problem.

"We would like to see a step-up in enforcement," he said. "A lot of enforcement can go a long way. These frauds aren't cases of people accidentally returning a can they bought in Ohio, these are concentrated groups of individuals working together in a concerted effort to defraud the government. We want to see the fraud problem solved without undue burden on retailers and grocers."

The Michigan Grocers Association and Michigan Soft Drink Association couldn't be reached for comment prior to press time.

"Everyone opposed wants to see the fraud problem addressed, but there are better ways to do it without imposing all of these mandates," Nyberg said.

One example is changing the UPC barcode on returnable products made in Michigan. Nyberg said Maine has already used this approach to address fraudulent container returns in their state. This would save grocers from having to re-tool their machines. However, Nyberg said the industry is against this approach because it would have to change the unified barcodes for just Michigan.

"This seems to me the more efficient way to do things," Nyberg said. "If they are already going to be forced to place a special ink dot on all bottles and cans just for Michigan, I don't see why they can't do this. I think there are a lot of options."

The bills have been passed out of committee in both the House and Senate and recommended for a second reading. There is no estimate on when or if a full floor vote on these bills will occur.

In the fall of 2007 Michigan law enforcement uncovered "Operation Can Scam," two Ohio-based smuggling rings that made hundreds of thousands of dollars by continuously defrauding the Michigan Bottle Deposit Fund.

It took 18 months of investigation by State Police detectives to uncover the ring that exploited the state's 10-cent bottle deposit law. According to the Attorney General's Office, this type of activity defrauds the state approximately $13 million a year.

In the end there was a 67-count indictment against 15 Michigan and Ohio suspects.