Ever since the stay at home order was put in place, there have been many restrictions that have put a hold on many things that were normal for us. One of those thing was that bottle deposit returns were closed, and people would be unable to make any kind of deposit returns. This caused so many people to be overwhelmed with returnables, I even saw people from both Portage and Battle Creek listing them on the Facebook Marketplace for free.

But as it turns out, our state as a whole has TONS of deposits to turn in, around $50 million! That's according to Tom Emmerich, chief operating officer of Schupan & Sons Recycling, we recently told the Detroit Free Press that people are giving up on deposits and just opting to recycle their cans and bottles, stating:

Consumers are not putting these containers at curbside, they're not throwing them away — yet. We also know there are a tremendous number of charities who are working with different communities to collect deposit containers until the stores start taking them back.

Now, how exactly did we reach this $50 million estimate? Normally according to Emmerich, Schupan and Sons processes about 160 million cans, 100 million plastic bottles and 100 million glass bottles per month. But ever since deposits have been banned, the stores they pick up cans and bottles from have had nothing to offer them.

With hopes that the state will slowly start to re-open at the end of the month, the hope rises that we'll also be able to start taking back our cans and bottles.

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A Nearly Empty Kalamazoo