As an Oregonian, I hate this system. It's old, archaic and now pointless. The idea behind it was to increase recycling of cans and bottles, and it did it's jo

As an Oregonian, I hate this system. It's old, archaic and now pointless. The idea behind it was to increase recycling of cans and bottles, and it did it's job. In the 70s and 80s, it was great to push that for the social good. But it's done it's job, two generations are now recycling more than ever and the coverage for curbside recycling is very high in Oregon. But the redemption rate has plummeted in the last decade! Of course it has, people don't want to have the hassle of taking cans into a location, wasting time putting each one in the machine, and getting a couple bucks back. So they were forgoing the 5 cents and just putting it in the curbside bin. News flash - the cans in the curbside bin didn't count toward redemption rates! Oregon also made it so stores didn't have to take redemptions anymore and opened redemption centers that aren't very conveniently location for most of the state. So the rate fell - and now they have increased the rate to get people to take the cans in again. Eventually the rate is going to fall AGAIN, and not because people aren't recycling the cans, they just aren't taking them in the redemption centers. The system is now worthless and just kept going because. Directly north of us, Washington doesn't have a can or bottle redemption system and there aren't cans and bottles everywhere - people just put them in the curbside bins like everything else.