4 ms·

I was wondering if they can apply the same concept to recyclable materials? Charge around 50 cents for each bottle extra, but then get refunded 50 cents when yo

I was wondering if they can apply the same concept to recyclable materials? Charge around 50 cents for each bottle extra, but then get refunded 50 cents when you recycle the bottle so it causes the customer to recycle more and if not, someone else will pick up the bottle themselves

msherry 12y ago
Most states in the USA do exactly this already.
- lbearl 12y ago
  From the sound of it, Michigan does it very well with their 10 cent deposit, and allowing most people to claim their deposit back right at the grocery store. California (with 5 cent CRV) is miserable with the places where we are supposed to claim our deposits being overrun with homeless and the places themselves not being all that great (I'm speaking from my experience in Orange County, YMMV).
- stonemetal 12y ago
  Less than a dozen states, nowhere near most.
- drivers99 12y ago
  Only 11 states.[1] (That's more than I thought.) [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Container_deposit_legislation_in_the_United_States http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Container_deposit_legislation_i...
pygy_ 12y ago
That's how beer and glass water bottles are handled in Belgium. It's been like this for at least 30 years, and it works fine.
err4nt 12y ago
I was just thinking about bottle deposits the other day. In places where they offer a bottle deposit and a refund when you return it do they consider those bottles your purchased property, or in those places do you just buy the drink and lease the bottle until it's returned? Is there an expectation of returning bottles in places that offer a refund, and does it affect your legal entitlement to the bottle in any way?
- 33W 12y ago
  The former in Michigan, where I was raised. $0.10/bottle, and seen as property (socially).
- pizza234 12y ago
  In the city where I live, bottles are property of the customer, but there is a formal pledge of having it refunded in case it's returned.
lotu 12y ago
I really dislike this idea. Living in an apartment means I put my recycling in a communal receptacle which is then put out by the building. If you had this rule I might feel compelled to take the extra time to bring my recycling over the the store or what ever to get the refund. Overall I see that as inefficient and annoying.
- BrianEatWorld 12y ago
  It also tends to create a secondary economy, where people will go through your recyclables or pick through public recycling receptacles collecting containers and claiming the crv. It makes the recycling trucks that go around sort of redundant.
  - pizza234 12y ago
    recycling trucks have regardless much work to do, they certainly don't become redundant. in real life, having people going around picking bottles is actually very convenient, as keeps the city cleaner.
  - waterlesscloud 12y ago
    Bottles pretty much never make it from our recycling bin to the truck. Every single morning there's people scavenging all the bins in the neighborhood in a systematic way. I don't mind, really, since it all ends up in the same place anyway.
- pizza234 12y ago
  It depends on how one has been educated. A minimal fee (for example, 10c per bottle) is very advantageous, because people with higher salaries will just throw them not minding the minimal economic waste. People in the middle will return them while doing the grocery. Finally, poor people will hunt for them. All of this, saves lots of garbage around.
simlevesque 12y ago
In Canada some provinces use this method. To the best of my knowledge the ones who have the best results is New-Brunswick which charges a fee for every item from this list : soft drinks, beer, wine, spirits, water and flavoured waters, fruit and vegetable juices, low alcohol drinks. The fee is 10 cents for everything except for alcoholic beverage over 500ml which have a fee of 20 cents. When you bring it back they give you half of that back. The bottles are processed by hand, giving job opportunities to many people. In 2010-2011, the program achieved a 79% recovery rate. Here is some more info on the program : http://www.ec.gc.ca/gdd-mw/default.asp?lang=En&xml=0822FE9A-96CA-42DC-90BF-E8B394CFF7B2 http://www.ec.gc.ca/gdd-mw/default.asp?lang=En&xml=0822FE9A-... In the province in which I live in (Quebec), the fees are the same but they give you back the whole fee. This means that the program costs more so to stay profitable the bottles are not hand processed. This means that there is less jobs created as a whole. However, since you receive twice as much when you collect bottles many people under the poverty line attend big events in hope to collect the bottles left behind by those who don't care. I've met a guy who was riding his bike with a small trailer who was making up to 400$ a day picking up bottles ! It obviously does not happen every day but it gives you an idea. Sometimes I drink in the park with my friends and some guy will come up to us and ask which bottles we are done with and he'd take care of them for us.
- soperj 12y ago
  I've heard that in Denmark they actually have an over 100% recovery rate because of bottles and cans coming in from other countries. If I remember right they charge $1 for deposit.
  - thomasahle 12y ago
    $0.17, $0.25 or $0.50 depending on can/bottle size. If prizes were much higher I think people would get into fights over empty cans in parks and at festivals. After all it's basically "collect three empty beers, get one for free".
    - megablast 12y ago
      In Demark? Even the weak as piss beer is expensive.
pdx6 12y ago
In California, the deposit on milk bottles is 1.50, and you get the deposit back when you bring the bottles back to the store. I associate bottled milk as having premium quality, even though the total price after redemption is similar to wax carton milk. CA also has CRV (Container recycle value, basically, .5/.10 ea), but it isn't a straight redemption value. You can turn in up to 50 containers of each type for a CRV refund, but after 50 you only get the CRV returned by weight. Some counties in CA have a plastic bag ban, with paper bags for .10 and compostable plastic bags for .25. You can get reusable bags for as little as $2 at the register too. CRV: http://www.calrecycle.ca.gov/BevContainer/Recyclers/Directory/Default.aspx?lang=en-US http://www.calrecycle.ca.gov/BevContainer/Recyclers/Director... Bag ban: http://sfenvironment.org/article/prevent-waste/checkout-bag-ordinance http://sfenvironment.org/article/prevent-waste/checkout-bag-...
- Domenic_S 12y ago
  Clarification: CRV can refer to "California Refund Value" - the amount recycling centers pay to consumers in exchange for empty bottles and cans, or "California Redemption Value" - a deposit paid on sales of certain recyclable beverage containers.
pessimizer 12y ago
In Portland, Oregon, the five cents a piece that we got from schlepping giant bags of empties to Freddy Meyer's enabled us to drink far longer than we could afford to.

msherry 12y ago

Most states in the USA do exactly this already.

lbearl 12y ago
From the sound of it, Michigan does it very well with their 10 cent deposit, and allowing most people to claim their deposit back right at the grocery store. California (with 5 cent CRV) is miserable with the places where we are supposed to claim our deposits being overrun with homeless and the places themselves not being all that great (I'm speaking from my experience in Orange County, YMMV).
stonemetal 12y ago
Less than a dozen states, nowhere near most.
drivers99 12y ago
Only 11 states.[1] (That's more than I thought.) [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Container_deposit_legislation_in_the_United_States http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Container_deposit_legislation_i...

pygy_ 12y ago

That's how beer and glass water bottles are handled in Belgium. It's been like this for at least 30 years, and it works fine.

err4nt 12y ago

I was just thinking about bottle deposits the other day. In places where they offer a bottle deposit and a refund when you return it do they consider those bottles your purchased property, or in those places do you just buy the drink and lease the bottle until it's returned? Is there an expectation of returning bottles in places that offer a refund, and does it affect your legal entitlement to the bottle in any way?

33W 12y ago
The former in Michigan, where I was raised. $0.10/bottle, and seen as property (socially).
pizza234 12y ago
In the city where I live, bottles are property of the customer, but there is a formal pledge of having it refunded in case it's returned.

lotu 12y ago

I really dislike this idea. Living in an apartment means I put my recycling in a communal receptacle which is then put out by the building. If you had this rule I might feel compelled to take the extra time to bring my recycling over the the store or what ever to get the refund. Overall I see that as inefficient and annoying.

BrianEatWorld 12y ago
It also tends to create a secondary economy, where people will go through your recyclables or pick through public recycling receptacles collecting containers and claiming the crv. It makes the recycling trucks that go around sort of redundant.
- pizza234 12y ago
  recycling trucks have regardless much work to do, they certainly don't become redundant. in real life, having people going around picking bottles is actually very convenient, as keeps the city cleaner.
- waterlesscloud 12y ago
  Bottles pretty much never make it from our recycling bin to the truck. Every single morning there's people scavenging all the bins in the neighborhood in a systematic way. I don't mind, really, since it all ends up in the same place anyway.
pizza234 12y ago
It depends on how one has been educated. A minimal fee (for example, 10c per bottle) is very advantageous, because people with higher salaries will just throw them not minding the minimal economic waste. People in the middle will return them while doing the grocery. Finally, poor people will hunt for them. All of this, saves lots of garbage around.

simlevesque 12y ago

In Canada some provinces use this method. To the best of my knowledge the ones who have the best results is New-Brunswick which charges a fee for every item from this list : soft drinks, beer, wine, spirits, water and flavoured waters, fruit and vegetable juices, low alcohol drinks. The fee is 10 cents for everything except for alcoholic beverage over 500ml which have a fee of 20 cents. When you bring it back they give you half of that back. The bottles are processed by hand, giving job opportunities to many people. In 2010-2011, the program achieved a 79% recovery rate. Here is some more info on the program : http://www.ec.gc.ca/gdd-mw/default.asp?lang=En&xml=0822FE9A-96CA-42DC-90BF-E8B394CFF7B2 http://www.ec.gc.ca/gdd-mw/default.asp?lang=En&xml=0822FE9A-... In the province in which I live in (Quebec), the fees are the same but they give you back the whole fee. This means that the program costs more so to stay profitable the bottles are not hand processed. This means that there is less jobs created as a whole. However, since you receive twice as much when you collect bottles many people under the poverty line attend big events in hope to collect the bottles left behind by those who don't care. I've met a guy who was riding his bike with a small trailer who was making up to 400$ a day picking up bottles ! It obviously does not happen every day but it gives you an idea. Sometimes I drink in the park with my friends and some guy will come up to us and ask which bottles we are done with and he'd take care of them for us.

soperj 12y ago
I've heard that in Denmark they actually have an over 100% recovery rate because of bottles and cans coming in from other countries. If I remember right they charge $1 for deposit.
- thomasahle 12y ago
  $0.17, $0.25 or $0.50 depending on can/bottle size. If prizes were much higher I think people would get into fights over empty cans in parks and at festivals. After all it's basically "collect three empty beers, get one for free".
  - megablast 12y ago
    In Demark? Even the weak as piss beer is expensive.

pdx6 12y ago

In California, the deposit on milk bottles is 1.50, and you get the deposit back when you bring the bottles back to the store. I associate bottled milk as having premium quality, even though the total price after redemption is similar to wax carton milk. CA also has CRV (Container recycle value, basically, .5/.10 ea), but it isn't a straight redemption value. You can turn in up to 50 containers of each type for a CRV refund, but after 50 you only get the CRV returned by weight. Some counties in CA have a plastic bag ban, with paper bags for .10 and compostable plastic bags for .25. You can get reusable bags for as little as $2 at the register too. CRV: http://www.calrecycle.ca.gov/BevContainer/Recyclers/Directory/Default.aspx?lang=en-US http://www.calrecycle.ca.gov/BevContainer/Recyclers/Director... Bag ban: http://sfenvironment.org/article/prevent-waste/checkout-bag-ordinance http://sfenvironment.org/article/prevent-waste/checkout-bag-...

Domenic_S 12y ago
Clarification: CRV can refer to "California Refund Value" - the amount recycling centers pay to consumers in exchange for empty bottles and cans, or "California Redemption Value" - a deposit paid on sales of certain recyclable beverage containers.

pessimizer 12y ago

In Portland, Oregon, the five cents a piece that we got from schlepping giant bags of empties to Freddy Meyer's enabled us to drink far longer than we could afford to.