Bottles and Cans

Under Michigan’s Bottle Deposit Law, shoppers are charged a 10-cent deposit at retailers for certain beverage containers. Empty bottles and cans can then be returned to the retailer for the shopper to be refunded that deposit.

To be returnable, a container has to be:

• Originally purchased at a Michigan store
• For one of the following:
  • A carbonated, non-alcoholic drink (e.g., soda/pop, soda water, or carbonated water)
  • OR a beer, ale, or malt drink
  • OR a mixed wine or spirit drink
• Sold at the retailer they are being returned to

We accept returnable containers that were purchased from the following retailers:

• Meijer
• MegaBev
• Aldi
• Walmart
• Sam’s Club
• Trader Joe’s
• Costco
• Fresh Thyme
• Target
• Harding’s

Bottles and cans that we cannot accept at this time include:

• Containers without a readable barcode
• Water (non-carbonated)
• Plain/non-carbonated lemonades (e.g. Minute Maid)
• Non-carbonated iced tea (e.g. Snapple)
• Hard ciders or wines

Our volunteers work hard to return bottles and cans. To make return visits go as smoothly as possible, we ask that you:

• Empty and rinse containers
• Allow containers to dry before storing them
• Store your containers in large boxes or bags
• Avoid crushing cans or removing labels from plastic bottles (barcode must be machine readable)