“ The Bottle Deposit”—a uncommon two - part episode ofSeinfeld — air out its first half on May 2 , 1996 , and instantly became atelevisionclassic . In it , Kramer and Newman take an sick - fated trip to Michigan in a mail truck full of bottleful and canful they hope to redeem for 10 cents a piece and make a carload of John Cash . Why is Michigan ’s bottle depositary so gamey ?
How long has Michigan had the dime deposit?
The 10 - cent down payment traces its roots back to theMichigan Beverage Containers Law , or the Bottle Bill , of 1976 . Here ’s how it works : consumer pay up an extra dime upfront when purchasing a bottled or canned beverage , which will be refunded when the can or bottleful is returned . The rule aims to curb litter , encouragerecycling , and provide support for environmental programs .
Does the higher deposit prompt more recycling?
A five - penny departure may sound dawdling — Michigan and Oregon are the only states to extend a 10 - cent versus a five - cent refund — but the higher deposit help make Michigan ’s recycling program wildly successful .
Although it ’s tough to track fraudulent cans and bottles that come in from outside the nation , the Michigan program had a return pace of more than 90 percent for its first 40 years . The numbers have been spend in Michigan since the pandemic — the current rate of return is approximately75.6 percentage — but that number still outpace the return rate of province like Massachusetts , which has a five - cent deposit and recollects just38 percentof its bottles and cans for recycling . In states where there is no refund , the retort rate is approximately28 pct .
This late declension has take lawmakers topropose a serial of changesto Michigan ’s current bottle return platform , limiting the types of bottles that can be reprocess and the hours in which that can be done .
Could Kramer and Newman really have pulled off their bottle return stunt?
Could Kramer and Newman have pulled off their bottleful restitution scheme ? in all probability . But it would require a lot of piece of work , as they might have had to find quite a few stores to redeem their prat . Under Michigan law , retail merchant only have to return$25 Charles Frederick Worth of deposits per personper day . Retailers are permit to return turgid sums at their own discretion , but they ’re only required to vanquish out $ 25 to each person . Since Kramer and Newman had $ 500 deserving of cans apiece , they might have found themselves hoofing it to 20 different retailers .
Has anyone actually tried this scam?
Of course ! In 2007 , Michigan State Police ranOperation Can Scam , which may not get any gunpoint for originative naming , but did lead to the arraignment of 10 grocer and can scam conspirators . The grocers ’ cozenage was pretty much Kramer and Newman ’s estimate on a much grander scale : Smugglers in Ohio collected trillion of seat and sold them to grocer at a discount off the 10 - cent repurchase value . The grocers then redeemed the deposits for the full dime bag , and everyone made a profit .
At least they did until law of nature enforcement caught winding of the scheme . In the course of making the 10 arrests , the authorities plough up zillion of cans and $ 500,000 in hard currency . The director of the Michigan State Police said that similar cozenage defraud the state of$10 to $ 13 million each year .
What happens to any unclaimed dimes?
Even though an extremely high pct of container are returned , unclaimed deposits still on a regular basis tally up to eight - figure total each class . Three quarter of that moneygoes into the Cleanup and Redevelopment Trust Fund to make up for environmental programs , while the remainder go to the retail merchant .
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A version of this tarradiddle run in 2011 ; it has been updated for 2024 .
