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How often is the consumer who fronts the nickel the person redeeming the nickel? I suspect the nickels are, in aggregate, a regressive tax. I have no data, howe

by RhysU 5y ago

How often is the consumer who fronts the nickel the person redeeming the nickel? I suspect the nickels are, in aggregate, a regressive tax. I have no data, however, to back that claim.

kevinventullo 5y ago
What makes you think that? In states with the nickel redemption, I’ve often seen homeless people collecting cans and bottles to return. This makes me suspect the average redeemer has less money than the average fronter.
- RhysU 5y ago
  I would be willing to bet that the 99% pays at least 99% of those nickels and the 1% pays at most 1% of them. I would consider those nickels regressive if most of them come from the lower half of economic distribution even if they all end up in the hands of the homeless.
  - jjeaff 5y ago
    But is a regressive tax bad if it is taxing something bad? (i.e. sugary drinks)
    - NovemberWhiskey 5y ago
      Diet drinks, unsweetened ice tea etc all pay the tax.
      - jjeaff 5y ago
        All just about as unhealthy.
BurritoAlPastor 5y ago
As a native Californian, I’ve never redeemed a CRV in my life, and I’m not sure anybody I know does, either. The prospect of not putting recycling in the recycling bin so I can have another errand in my life is remarkably unappealing, especially given that I’d make less than a dollar a month for doing so. There’s a certain amount of people rummaging through the bins on trash night, but only in urban areas, and they can’t be that thorough. I imagine that most of our recycling rate comes from ubiquitous curbside recycling programs, and the CRV goes to the waste management companies, who just keep it as profit.
- ghaff 5y ago
  I basically never redeem deposits either. My town recycling center, which I go to a few times a year basically to dump all my Amazon cardboard, has a place you can leave deposit containers for a local animal shelter so I accumulate and take it in along with the cardboard.
- toast0 5y ago
  > the CRV goes to the waste management companies, who just keep it as profit. It's part of the negotiation with the municipality on the collection contract. If you want to call it offsetting costs or profit, money is fungible; if CRV was eliminated, billing for collection would go up in the next contract.
kevindong 5y ago
I live in NY(C) which has container deposits. I don't personally know anyone that bothers trying to redeem the container deposit. I personally don't because it's really not worth my time at $0.05 per container. Particularly when I don't consume meaningful amounts of cans/bottles. Technically speaking, any retailer that sells containers is also required to redeem them. In practice consumers don't really bother since no one really wants to wait in the (frequently long) customer service line to talk to people to redeem containers. Some larger retailers have dedicated machines, but I still don't really bother since those machines aren't very convenient to get to for me. There's an entire "industry" where people pick containers out of recycling bins/trash/building-waste/building-recycling and then redeem it which creates interesting tensions with funding the NYC recycling program [0]. [0]: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/21/nyregion/new-york-city-fights-scavengers-over-a-treasure-trash.html https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/21/nyregion/new-york-city-fi...

by RhysU 5y ago

How often is the consumer who fronts the nickel the person redeeming the nickel? I suspect the nickels are, in aggregate, a regressive tax. I have no data, however, to back that claim.

kevinventullo 5y ago

What makes you think that? In states with the nickel redemption, I’ve often seen homeless people collecting cans and bottles to return. This makes me suspect the average redeemer has less money than the average fronter.

RhysU 5y ago
I would be willing to bet that the 99% pays at least 99% of those nickels and the 1% pays at most 1% of them. I would consider those nickels regressive if most of them come from the lower half of economic distribution even if they all end up in the hands of the homeless.
- jjeaff 5y ago
  But is a regressive tax bad if it is taxing something bad? (i.e. sugary drinks)
  - NovemberWhiskey 5y ago
    Diet drinks, unsweetened ice tea etc all pay the tax.
    - jjeaff 5y ago
      All just about as unhealthy.

BurritoAlPastor 5y ago

As a native Californian, I’ve never redeemed a CRV in my life, and I’m not sure anybody I know does, either. The prospect of not putting recycling in the recycling bin so I can have another errand in my life is remarkably unappealing, especially given that I’d make less than a dollar a month for doing so. There’s a certain amount of people rummaging through the bins on trash night, but only in urban areas, and they can’t be that thorough. I imagine that most of our recycling rate comes from ubiquitous curbside recycling programs, and the CRV goes to the waste management companies, who just keep it as profit.

ghaff 5y ago
I basically never redeem deposits either. My town recycling center, which I go to a few times a year basically to dump all my Amazon cardboard, has a place you can leave deposit containers for a local animal shelter so I accumulate and take it in along with the cardboard.
toast0 5y ago
> the CRV goes to the waste management companies, who just keep it as profit. It's part of the negotiation with the municipality on the collection contract. If you want to call it offsetting costs or profit, money is fungible; if CRV was eliminated, billing for collection would go up in the next contract.

kevindong 5y ago

I live in NY(C) which has container deposits. I don't personally know anyone that bothers trying to redeem the container deposit. I personally don't because it's really not worth my time at $0.05 per container. Particularly when I don't consume meaningful amounts of cans/bottles. Technically speaking, any retailer that sells containers is also required to redeem them. In practice consumers don't really bother since no one really wants to wait in the (frequently long) customer service line to talk to people to redeem containers. Some larger retailers have dedicated machines, but I still don't really bother since those machines aren't very convenient to get to for me. There's an entire "industry" where people pick containers out of recycling bins/trash/building-waste/building-recycling and then redeem it which creates interesting tensions with funding the NYC recycling program [0]. [0]: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/21/nyregion/new-york-city-fights-scavengers-over-a-treasure-trash.html https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/21/nyregion/new-york-city-fi...