For a show about nothing, Seinfeld sometimes came up with some pretty crazy plots.
“The Bottle Deposit” is an example of just such a plot, as Kramer and Newman conspire to beat the recycling refund system by transporting recyclable material from New York to Michigan.
Rather than viewing the zany sitcom scheme as, well, a zany sitcom scheme, apparently a Michigan Man (Florida Man’s cousin) decided to ape Kramer’s strategy to make money off recycling bottles from out-of-state. Problem: that’s against Michigan law.
To legally receive the refunds from recycled bottles and cans in the state of Michigan, the bottles or cans in question actually have to be from Michigan, and Brian Edward Everidge’s truck full of cans came from Kentucky, not Michigan. He was pulled over for speeding on April 27, and the cop who pulled him over noticed the 10,000 cans and bottles. At $.10 apiece, he could have made $1,000 from his Seinfeld scheme. Now, he faces a potential fine of $5,000 and five years in prison, according to a local paper.
Kramer and Newman both eventually gave up on their scheme, but Mr. Everidge didn’t. At least he wasn’t transporting the material in a Post Office truck, a la Newman. That likely would have been much worse.
