Subj : Re: soda pop deposits
To : Jim Weller
From : Dave Drum
Date : Sun Sep 04 2022 05:02:02
-=> JIM WELLER wrote to DAVE DRUM <=-
RH> Had to pay deposit on the cans so tried to keep consumption down.
RH> The HI one came out while we were there; cut our (my) consumption
RH> dramatically.
JW> But the deposit is refundable if you bring the empties back to the
JW> store. (These days of course one takes all their empties back to a
JW> recycling centre, not the retailer.)
Does the recycling centre refund the deposit(s) or just buy the cans
at current scrap price?
Illinois does not have a recycling/container deposit in place. But I do
have a can crusher and recycle soda and beer cans for their scrap value
(hovers between 69c and 74c/lb)
DD> When I was a youngster ... 2c per bottle ... I used to collect
DD> discarded soda bottles
JW> Same. Our country road ran parallel to the highway which connected
JW> the interprovincial bridge and the nearest village, which at the
JW> time was in a dry township whereas in Quebec, the taverns were
JW> plentiful, stayed open late and had off sales (they sold chilled
JW> cases of beer to go about a buck a box more than the liquor store
JW> sold warm ones). Drunks enjoying a cold one on the way home and
JW> avoiding the highway would litter our ditches with empty late night
JW> beer bottles so it was rich pickings. My buddy and I would do a
JW> cleanup walk every spring as soon as the snow melted with potato
JW> and flour sacks. and then beg a parent to fire up a pickup and pick
JW> up all the bags at the end of the day. We used to do six miles in
JW> the course of two weekends.
RH> never let us kids "scrounge"
DD> What scrounging? It was clean-up. Or enterprise.
JW> Agreed. Scrounging is the theft of things left unattended. We
JW> weren't going into people's back porches to steal their recyclables,
JW> just collecting castaway stuff.
DD> The container deposit laws were designed to cut down on litter,
DD> waste, and depletion of resources. Seems to have helped.
JW> THe NWT has deposits of various sizes on all beverages containers,
JW> including 4 liter plastic jugs for milk. Because of the high
JW> trucking costs getting the used containers back to where they can be
JW> cleaned and reused or melted down our recycling centres here only
JW> return half the deposit and the operators try to make a living
JW> trucking crushed and shredded empties back to Alberta in bulk.
It has been yonks since I have seen refillable beverage bottles in common
usage. We seem to have become a disposable society. When I was doing
home brewing in the 70s and early 80s it was getting hard to source 12
ounce bottle to fill with my output.
JW> I have not come across quick cooking barley. Apparently it's
JW> partially precooked, steamed and then dried, not unlike quick and
JW> instant oats and rice.
