a musing julius…

the michigan deposit law is the stupidest and most idiotic law ever. for those unaware, michigan charges a 10 cent deposit for “beverage containers” (glass, paper, airtight metallic containers, or plastic with a volume of less than 1 gallon) that contain a “beverage” (which is defined as any non-alcoholic carbonated drink, or beer, ale, carbonated malt beverages or mixed wine or spirit drinks.) 11 other states have enacted similar laws.

the reason the law was enacted was two reasons:

1. michigan’s recycling rates dropped below many states in the country
2. michigan’s litter rate was increasing rapidly 

based on MDOT evidence, the michigan litter rate along major roadways did infact drop, from 200+ containers per mile to 45 containers per mile. but the recycling bit…here are some fun facts.

1. the michigan law does not require bottlers to recycle the beverage containers that they collect. only that they must collect them from retailers that collect bottles from consumers.
2. michigan does not collect statistics on beverage container return rates. it only measures the amount of money collected and paid out by the treasury. sadly, this also means fraud calculations are not included in any of the published numbers paid out by the state for bottle deposits. however, research by the state of michigan estimates fraud on returning out of state beverage containers reaches 50-150 million containers a year. that’s $5-15 million in cash paid out by the state.

michigan’s own research shows that each container under the bottle bill law has a financial impact of $0.025 per container. no bottle bill has a financial impact of $0.001. that’s a savings, based on michigan data of close to $90 million a year split between retailers, bottlers, distributers and the state. the bottle law itself, well, that generates, on average of the 16 years of data i see, the state collects an average of just $12 million for use by the treasury!

another unintended consequence of the bottle deposit law is that curbside recycling has dwindled in michigan communities…which does not help with recycling other plastics and papers not covered by the law. personally, i also feel that homelessness rates are higher in areas that have bottle deposit laws. sadly, no educational papers have been written on the subject, but there have been papers written about low-income families supplementing their income using bottle deposit laws by collecting beverage containers.

here’s my fix:

1. get rid of the deposit law. it’s stupid! the recycling statistics were taken in the late 70’s, when the environment was of no concern to americans. now, it’s cool to be environmentally friendly, and our recycling statistics could rival those of states without deposit laws. 
2. use the $100 million saved each year ($90 million cost of the bottle program per year, plus $10 million paid out to fraudlent redeemers) and provide tax incentives to retailers and bottlers to implement an improved recycling programs and infrastructure in michigan communities.
3. ensure that curbside collections are indeed being recycled (something that is NOT currently required by the michigan bottle deposit law)
4. impose heavy fines on those that litter and offer rewards to anyone that reports littering or dumping.

quick fix, save the state money, improve the environment, save the average michigan household $25 a year, while saving the state, retailers, distributers and bottlers millions per year, which can go to create new jobs, something michigan so desperately needs.

my parents and i camped often as a hobby. we’d go 3 times a year, sometimes 4 or 5 times a year. we loved it…basically, we’d drive to the upper peninsula of michigan towing our jetski with 3 other couples, also towing jetskis. we’d camp in fayette state park, or pictured rocks national lake shore. both are great places to camp, and surprisingly, both are home to the only remaining iron ore smelting furnaces in the united states. how ironic that i’ve camped at both?

anyhow, two separate instances that i recall were rather amusing…there were dozens of fun camping episodes that range from freaking awesome to freaking time-to-go-to-the-hospital-awesome.

1. we once visited fayette state park in the summermonsoon season of 1999. it rained all 5 days we were there. obviously everyone was pissed except one person.  henry, one of my dad’s friends (one of the captains responsible for demolishing the engine of the 72 foot yacht) made the best of all situations. he decided after two days of rain, we would sit outside in the rain, and sing. all day. all night. next to the camp fire, which became my job to upkeep. yay. so, in the drunken stupor of everyone except me…my dad decided to take pictures with our old 35 mm camera. it wasn’t anything spectacular, but in it’s day, it was a fancy camera. the humidity took its toll on the poor camera which never wanted to work. without thinking, my father threw the camera into the campfire. here, i learned batteries explode furiously violently. it was funny. plastic smelled. my shoes were damaged by the exploding battery.
2. in 1997, we went to pictured rocks on lake superior. for those uninformed, lake superior is the coldest of the great lakes, and usually runs at 35 degrees year round. our campsite was nice, but for chilling during the day, my parents and their friends preferred the extraordinary, and so it was their wish to travel around to the north side of grand island, about a mile offshore from where we drop our jetskis into the water. this was our first year on the water of lake superior, so we didn’t know it was so cold. so we pack up our stuff, like we have done in the past…me and dad on one jet ski, henry on another, mom, andy, ola and stuff in a jet boat. begin the mile long travel off shore. in 35 degree weather. in nothing but swim trunks. hey, it’s just like lake michigan right? my dad entered hypotheric shock about a half mile from shore and began shaking uncontrollably. i freaked out, signaled to the other jetskis (which were far ahead of us) with flares shouts of uncontrolled rage. realizing it was up to me, i had to manuever the jetski from the back seat, while i thought my dad was having a seizure. nearly 5 minutes of my dad shaking, me crying, and driving a jetski as quickly as i could to shore, the other jetskis noticed we were severely off course and followed us. i got to shore, put my dad on the ground, and jumped on top of him to help keep him warm. the other boats figured out what was wrong when they got to shore, and immediately grabbed towels and blankets spiced rum to warm my dad. dad and i shared swigs of rum from the bottle that day. we continued on our course after warming up. upon our return from that camping trip, the family bought long wetsuits for future trips to the cold lake.

those are just two camping stories. there were dozens of other great memories, jetskis or not. but now i’m cold just thinking about it…i need a blanket.