Hey Michigan: you are crushing it. The state's Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) announced in April 2026 that Michigan residents and businesses recycled more than 800,000 tons of material in fiscal year 2025, a new all-time record. To be precise: 800,940 tons of paper, plastics, glass, and more, collected curbside and through drop-off programs statewide.
The breakdown is impressive on its own. That total includes more than 577,000 tons of paper and paper products, over 60,000 tons of glass, and more than 41,000 tons of plastics. This isn't just a feel-good number. It reflects real infrastructure investment, growing public participation, and a recycling industry that is handling more volume than it ever has before.
For scrap yards operating in Michigan, that growth wave is good news. More material in circulation means more opportunity at the ticket window. But it also means more transactions, more sellers, and more scrutiny on how those transactions are handled. And in Michigan, the rules around how you handle certain transactions are very specific.
Michigan's Scrap Metal Regulatory Act (Act 429 of 2008, amended in 2014) puts hard restrictions on payment methods for what the law calls high-theft items: catalytic converters, air conditioning components, and copper wire. For those categories, cash on the spot is not an option. If a purchase transaction hits $25 or more, or if a seller's combined transactions with your yard on a given business day total $25 or more, payment must go out by check or money order, direct deposit or electronic transfer, or electronic payment card.
Law enforcement agencies can inspect a dealer's transaction records during normal business hours, and yards are required to have those records available on request. That's not a hypothetical: it's a live obligation every time a high-theft-item transaction goes through your books.
The practical reality for many Michigan yards is that managing this well requires the right tools. When your ticket volume is growing because the whole state is recycling at a record pace, manual workflows and cash drawers are exactly where compliance breaks down.