Michigan Meijer Debuts Futuristic Bottle Return Machines

The dreaded bottle return.

If you live in Michigan, you know bottle returns. If you buy soda, beer, energy drinks, or other beverages, they come with a 10-cent deposit. A whopping ten cents per returnable really adds up.

Not only is it state law to recycle returnables, but we also want our money back. So, we bag up all the plastic, aluminum, and glass bottles and bring them to places with bottle returns, likely the nearest Meijer.

READ ALSO: Why are Michigan Bottle Deposits So High?

Returning cans is typically a monotonous task. And depending on how many returnables you have, it could take you a while. Soon, that might not be the case...

There are two Michigan Meijer locations that have bottle returns from the future!

What’s Changing at Meijer Bottle Returns

If you go to Wyoming, Michigan—just south of Grand Rapids—you'll find new automated bottle return machines. There are two huge differences in the way this new machine works:

1. You don't have to separate your aluminum from your plastic—they can all go in the same machine. You DO still have to do glass bottles separately.
2. You don't have to load each bottle individually. You can just dump the whole bag into the machine at once.

The machine does the sorting and counting for you!

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Right now there are just two Michigan Meijer stores with these futuristic bottle returns to test them out. Who knows when we'll see them in stores across the Mitten State. Until then, we still have to sort our bottles and put them in one-by-one, like peasants.

Check out how it works in the video below.