Michigan residents threw away millions of vape pens, $130 million in bottle deposits and literal tons of food waste in 2023. That’s according to a report by the Michigan Sustainable Business Forum, which analyzed the state’s solid waste (also known as “garbage”) for its potential value in recyclable materials.
The recyclable material thrown away could generate hundreds of millions of dollars for the Michigan economy, according to the report. The analysis is part of the organization’s mission to spotlight the economic and monetary value of potentially recyclable materials, said Dan Schoonmaker, the forum’s executive director.
“Refuse and recycling is not the end of life for material, he said” Instead, it should be seen as the beginning of the supply chain.
The organization conducted the same analysis in 2016 and compared results. One finding that surprised Schoonmaker was the millions of vape pens thrown out with their lithium ion batteries inside.
The analysis could not determine a precise number, but estimated there were at least 30 million vape pens in the state’s waste stream.
Lithium ion batteries are becoming more common in products from tiny gadgets to electric vehicles. Those pens make up a small percentage of the trash Michiganders throw out, but they contain valuable materials, Schoonmaker said.
They’re also a necessary part of the state’s long-term goal to fully decarbonize and electrify infrastructure, said Matt Flechter, a recycling market development specialist at the state’s Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy.
“The lithium ion battery issue is a big deal because we need that metal,” he said. “Having vape pens sitting in landfills, not circulating in our economy [and] having that lithium getting back into the batteries is a real problem.”
But the infrastructure to collect and recycle the batteries in electronics like vape pens isn’t there yet.
“Having a place where those vape pen batteries can go and collect [them] in the collection network is paramount,” Flechter said.
But the single largest category of recyclable materials is food waste, according to the report. It made up almost a fifth of the trash analyzed in 2023.
That’s expected, partly because food waste is difficult to recycle, Schoonmaker said.
“It’s one of the harder things to get out of your waste stream,” he said.
The state has room to grow in creating opportunities for residents and businesses to compost or recycle their food waste, Flechter and Schoonmaker said.
The state’s bottle deposit returns have also lagged. Michigan residents threw out 1.3 billion returnable containers, like pop cans or beer bottles, in 2023, according to the report. That’s $130 million of dime deposits – about $13 per person in the state, Flechter said.
Returnable containers like pop cans or beer bottles make up a very small part of the waste stream, said Schoonmaker. But the incentive to earn back the deposit we pay at the store seems to have diminished.
Inflation and a decrease in the value of the dime is one factor, Flechter said. But also, COVID disrupted the recycling system, he and Schoonmaker said.
“People got in the habit of doing things a different way,” Schoonmaker said. “And we haven’t quite recovered to normal on that yet.” Michigan once boasted a 96% return rate for bottle deposits. That figure dropped to 73% in 2020, and has hovered within a few percentage points since.
The process for returning bottles needs to be updated, said Kerrin O’Brien, the executive director of the Michigan Recycling Coalition.
“Our bottle deposit system hasn't kept up with the [curbside] recycling systems,” and dropping off returnables isn’t as easy or convenient for residents, she said.
“You know, you take your stack of returnables to your local grocery store and you feed them one by one into a machine,” O'Brien said. “That gets old.”
Convenience is a huge factor in increasing recycling rates in all waste categories. And Michigan still has a long way to go.
The state’s goal is to reach a recycling rate of 39% by 2029. But Michigan’s recycle rate was only 23% in 2023.
That’s higher than in years past. The state is making progress, Flechter said.
“We are making some major strides in Michigan,” he said, pointing to increased access to curbside and dropoff recycling for residents. Schoonmaker also pointed to increased curbside recycling, although about 19% of residents did not have access to curbside recycling in 2023, according to a report by NextCycle.
The state’s materials management plan is an opportunity to continue increasing access, O’Brien said.
“I think [it] will do a lot to make waste visible and help counties to think differently about their role,” she said. The plan requires all 83 counties in Michigan to study how much waste they generate and how to manage it – including how to reuse or recycle it when possible.
Michigan needs to keep doing what it’s doing, and get better, Schoonmaker said.
“[The state has] got to keep making investments in infrastructure,” he said, as well as education. Michigan will probably have to consider regulatory measures too, although those aren’t recommendations the forum is making in the report, he said.
Flechter expects residents will pay attention to the bottle return numbers – and maybe improve them.
“Michigan residents love our deposit law. We see it as part of our culture,” he said. “We take our bottles back. And making it easier to recycle those beverage containers at the store is important.”