A scene from the bygone era B.C. [Before Covid]. (Photos: Schupan & Sons)
Give us your piled-up, your bagged
Your huddled empties yearning to be recycled
A plea to free the wretched refuse in our homes comes from Michigan's main processor of bottles and cans redeemed for dimes, something we've been unable to do since March 23.
Deposit container returns "absolutely can be done safely and we're the only state right now that isn't redeeming," says Marc Schupan, chief executive of Schupan & Sons, based in Wixom. He speaks with the Free Press about what the industrial recycler estimates is $50 million in unredeemed beer, pop and carbonated water containers.
"We need to get back to some sense of normalcy, and do it in a safe, efficient way," he said. "We'll be working three shifts, around the clock, to help catch up." ...
That [backlog] grows by 70 million unredeemed cans and bottles a week, said Tom Emmerich, chief operating officer of Schupan & Sons Recycling. The company, with processing facilities in Wixom and Wyoming, processes aluminum cans and plastic and glass bottles from Michigan's beer and pop distributors, who in turn pick them up from the supermarkets, party stores, gas stations and other places. ...
Schupan & Sons typically processes about 160 million cans, 100 million plastic bottles and 100 million glass bottles per month, Emmerich said. ... "We're probably looking at 20 to 25 weeks to dig ourselves out of this issue."
Keith Matheny of the Freep also quotes Scott Breen, a vice president at the Can Manufacturers Institute who says: "Michigan is kind of unique in shutting down its entire redemption system." Among the other nine states with deposit laws, some reduce collection sites or let stores decide whether to limit or stop returns.
The Wixom firm, which describes itself as the nation's biggest privately owned used beverage container processor, sent Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's office a plan for phased-in stages that it says would let retailers manage returns safely.
A Freep reader in Dearborn, Gary Woronchak, comments on Facebook:
Decided a while ago I was not going to let bags pile up only to get into line with everyone else who has hundreds of cans to return to those sticky-floor places where the machines too often malfunction. Imagine those lines of people with carts full of cans while practicing six-feet distancing. Bottle return areas have never seemed particularly sanitary anyway, and it will be a long time, if ever, that I feel comfortable in that setting. ...
We set some out for a youth football fundraiser just this weekend. For now, anyway, that extra $1.20 I pay for a 12-pack of pop is just another Covid cost.
