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I don't think reusable milk bottles and subscription vs product are linked together. There is no reason why a van couldn't deliver plastic milk bottles and ther

I don't think reusable milk bottles and subscription vs product are linked together. There is no reason why a van couldn't deliver plastic milk bottles and there is no reason why a supermarket couldn't take a deposit for returned glass milk bottles. Supermarkets already do this, many will take back used sodastream CO2 canisters for a discount on the replacement. It just happens that these two changes happened at the same time. Plastic is cheaper than glass so glass milk bottles went out but compressed gasses can not be stored in a cheap plastic container.

CRConrad 5y ago
> ...many will take back used sodastream CO2 canisters for a discount on the replacement. Holy shit, are you saying they're sold any other way?!? What, like people just throw them away? Holy chrome-moly, that's one I'd never imagined.
- MandieD 5y ago
  I’m pretty sure the deposit on the canisters is at least 4 EUR, and no one who is taking the trouble to fizz their own water and get replacements at the service desk would just chuck an empty one.
- SilverRed 5y ago
  There are a few stores that only sell the new canisters and do not do the swaps. I imagine all users of the system will do the swaps though. In my original comment I meant many stores and not many sodastream users, slightly confusing wording in my original comment.
  - CRConrad 5y ago
    No problem, I got that it was stores you meant. What I don't get is what customers do if they once get a canister from them: Now they have two. Can they return the extra for a refund in stead of replacement, at one of the "normal" places that does receive used ones? Or are they stuck with two canisters for ever more?
flyinghamster 5y ago
Up until the mid-1970s in the US, sodas were often sold in eight-packs of thick glass pint* bottles, returnable for deposit at the store. The delivery trucks picked up the returned bottles and took them to the bottling plant, where they were washed and reused. Coca-Cola bottles were famous for being stamped on the bottom with their originating bottling plant. Then came the thin-wall non-returnable glass bottles, followed quickly by plastic. I don't think it was an improvement. * US pint = 16 fl. oz. = 473.2 ml

CRConrad 5y ago

> ...many will take back used sodastream CO2 canisters for a discount on the replacement. Holy shit, are you saying they're sold any other way?!? What, like people just throw them away? Holy chrome-moly, that's one I'd never imagined.

MandieD 5y ago
I’m pretty sure the deposit on the canisters is at least 4 EUR, and no one who is taking the trouble to fizz their own water and get replacements at the service desk would just chuck an empty one.
SilverRed 5y ago
There are a few stores that only sell the new canisters and do not do the swaps. I imagine all users of the system will do the swaps though. In my original comment I meant many stores and not many sodastream users, slightly confusing wording in my original comment.
- CRConrad 5y ago
  No problem, I got that it was stores you meant. What I don't get is what customers do if they once get a canister from them: Now they have two. Can they return the extra for a refund in stead of replacement, at one of the "normal" places that does receive used ones? Or are they stuck with two canisters for ever more?

flyinghamster 5y ago

Up until the mid-1970s in the US, sodas were often sold in eight-packs of thick glass pint* bottles, returnable for deposit at the store. The delivery trucks picked up the returned bottles and took them to the bottling plant, where they were washed and reused. Coca-Cola bottles were famous for being stamped on the bottom with their originating bottling plant. Then came the thin-wall non-returnable glass bottles, followed quickly by plastic. I don't think it was an improvement. * US pint = 16 fl. oz. = 473.2 ml