Hanging's too good for him!
Posted on 02/11/2011 6:53:03 AM PST by tje
BRANCH COUNTY, Mich. (NEWSCHANNEL 3) – A Brighton man is in trouble with the law for bringing aluminum cans from Indiana to Michigan to collect the deposits.
On Monday night state police troopers pulled over 64-year-old John Woodfill for driving erratically. He was driving a van with a trailer that didn't have a tailgate.
In the back were more than 60,000 aluminum cans
(Excerpt) Read more at wwmt.com ...
Oops, Brighton is in Michigan. So the round trip begins and ends in Michigan not Indiana. They pulled him over on “erratic driving” so they didn’t need to see an Indiana plate for that. The rest of the police “work” would be the same.
Don’t forget to limit purchases to one six-pack per week to cut down on “straw man” sales, closing the “concession stand loophole”, and coordinating with neighboring states to eliminate vending machines within fifty miles of their border with Michigan.
Yep. I did not assume that. Thank you for the information though...
I just brought a bunch of cans in for recycling. Picked up a couple of 55 gal drums from the steel bin. I still need one more. Slack tub for my forge, coal storage bin, burn barrel for an attempt at making charcoal, and I need one more for an attempt at making a composting barrel for my Wife's rose bushes.
Aren’t the cans purchased in MI marked with a deposit stamp on them? I thought that was the way they kept this kind of thing under control.
That is not true. I have a can in front of me, bought in Kansas that clearly states all the refundable amounts and states. Including Michigan.
Oh!The Humanity!
>>Aren’t the cans purchased in MI marked with a deposit stamp on them? I thought that was the way they kept this kind of thing under control.<<
Not that I’ve found.
They are marked with the deposit amount from every state that gives cash for it.
But the cans from OH look like the cans from MI.
By the same token, my family comes up to visit and they buy soft drinks here. When they take them home, they lose on the deposit.
Exactly.
This is an excellent thread to demonstrate the arbitrariness of this law and many laws (of much wider import) in general. The proposed collection of $6000 for cans, from who knows where, is a "felony" only because the law, or judges, make it a felony. But in Nazi Germany it was a "felony" if one did not report Jews. In Mao's China it was a "felony" if one tried to own a personal automobile.
The intent of the original passing of this law, we suppose, is to reduce litter on Michigan's roadsides. But unless as someone above says every can is tracked as from MI, then with the passing of the law the only honorable recompense is to just refund for the bottles, period, all the while realizing that there will be some of the refund money stack to be stashed away (kept), as per your personal example, and some of the refund money stack to be paid (given out) for bottles that did not originate through MI distributorship.
That of course is to assume laws are naturally "honorable" (and which another comment above clarifies as just not true anymore).
As an activist litter fighter I come across the bottle bill argument regularly, but am not convinced. Especially questionable like in this case, aluminum cans, which can be collected for the going rate of aluminum recycling. And especially considering that the judges would be better serving if they just socked the fines to those who litter in the first place.
Can't figure though why the guy didn't just say he was going to the aluminum recycling plant in MI. No crime in that, and I would have always had that option as a backup.
Hanging's too good for him!
Back when I was in college in the 60s, the electric utility in Detroit would give you a new light bulb if you brought in a burned out one.
Back then they were actually trying to promote the usage of more electricity.
Guys would bring a carload of burned out bulbs from Ohio, get the freebie replacements, and sell them.
Anybody know what he paid for the empties in Indiana?
Just trying to estimate the potential profits here.....
;- )
Oh, can it! ;-p
The funny thing is Michigan limits refunds to $25/store. This guy would have to hit 240 stores to cash them all in. Doesn’t sound like it’s worth the effort.
Have to advice and extend my remarks. My wife just reminded me the last trip we took to Indiana, we tried to return a few cans from there, the return machines wouldn’t take them.
Interesting. Nobody buys them in bulk?
This happened in Michigan?
Lordy...I always knew that most idiots don’t have a Southern accent! lol
“Hanging’s too good for him!”
You got that right! He should be forced fed through a recycling machine!
So, who’s up for some Soylent Green?
If you don’t mind, I’ll stick to the red and blue soylents.
I miss Chuck, speaking of Soylent Green. Now we’re stuck with Planet of the Apes.
The exception to the rule is if you are a charity. Then you can literally bring in a truck load and get cash but you have to made arrangements in advance.
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