Meijer Customers Can Now Collect $65M in Bottle Returns

Meijer will begin accepting beverage container returns at its Michigan stores starting on June 15 so that customers can collect about $65 million worth of refunds. 

The retailer temporarily discontinued returns in March due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Meijer says Michigan residents have about $65 million worth of 10-cent bottle and can refunds to redeem statewide, so the company expects high demand at bottle return facilities.

"These last few months have posed numerous challenges, but we appreciate the patience of all our customers and team members as we navigated through them together," said Todd Weer, Meijer SVP of stores. "We know there is an abundance of beverage containers waiting to be recycled, so we're asking all of our customers to please be patient and respectful toward each other as we deal with a volume of returnable containers that we've never seen before."

Meijer says it and other retailers will need to take additional action around sanitization and social distancing to accommodate the expected return of large quantities of bottles and cans that have been stockpiled during the pandemic. 

Grand Rapids, Mich.-based Meijer operates more than 245 supercenters and grocery stores throughout Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky and Wisconsin. The company is No. 19 on PG's 2020 PG 100 list of the top grocers in the United States.