re: Michigan Bottle Deposit Scam - Right out of Seinfeld

This how bottle deposits work. Each state legislates what they want listed as refundable containers. Businesses within that state that sell containers listed will charge an extra 5 cents, 10 if in Michigan, to the purchaser to cover the deposit of that container.

It is now upto the purchaser to redeem the deposit once they are finished with the container. Now the company's that sell the containers will now report how much they took in from deposits when their products were sold. They will get a report of how many of their containers were redeemed for the deposit. If the company took in more in deposits than was returned they would send the difference to the state. This is why it's aginst the law to bring containers from another state. Those containers didn't have a deposit taken on them.

Sorry for the wall of text. There is still a bit more but this is the jest of it.