Recycling…not worth the deposit?!
We have a small domestic dilemma. What to do with the cans and bottles one uses. In particular the ones with a deposit.
Oregon enacted The Beverage Container Act or “Bottle Bill” in 1971 to reduce litter and increase recycling. I think for the most part it has its merits and should be expanded upon to include water bottles among other containers and perhaps an increased deposit.
But that’s not what this post is about. This is more of a rant of my most recent experience with the mechanics of saving, storing, transporting, processing and redeeming these containers. Initially I had it all figured out. So… a little history first.
One day I heard a knock on our front door, upon opening the door I saw a young girl dressed in full Girl Scout outfit. I recognized the vest, sash and Brownie pin right away and felt comfortable that this young lady was legit. I thought I was sure to be breaking out my checkbook any minute for a case of Thin Mints, Samoas and Tagalongs. I stood waiting for her to pull out the cookie order form as I was salivating thinking of the peanut-buttery goodness, undoubtedly witnessed by her father standing by his little pickup truck. Then to my disappointment she asks if we had any cans or bottles we could spare for her fund raising efforts. Sad to realize I wouldn’t be getting another installment of cookies I quickly refocused and pointed to the back yard. I then said if she and her dad didn’t mind if there were some beer cans mixed in that they could have as many as they wanted. I walked her around back and approached our garden shed where the treasure trove would soon be found. The door opened to reveal a mountain of cans and bottles several times taller than the Brownie that will be carrying them. “This is all yours” I proclaimed as if granting her a kingdom. I’m not sure if the tears that built in the corner of her eyes was from knowing that she would certainly win the coveted multicolored slinky for collecting the most cans or because she was repulsed by the thought that two humans could consume so much liquid beverage. Either way she dove right in and eagerly transported the cans and bottles out to her father who loaded and tied them down in his little pickup…… That was 3 years ago.
Since then we’ve been saving our cans in the same fashion, stuffing them into 13 gallon garbage bags tying them off and stacking them in our shed. Knowing that any day we will be able make a dream come true for the entrepreneurial child that will be knocking on our door soon. But many days past and we never had that visitor we were expecting. The shed grew increasingly full to the point that extracting the lawnmower from the mountain of aluminum became overly frustrating. Then I suddenly disliked that Girl Scout for teasing me into saving these cans. So out they went, bag by bag, tossed into the back of my truck. Wife and child in tow we headed down to Safeway where we would spend the next three hours processing the cans. Sorting cans and bottles into sticky old shopping baskets, waiting in line to put can by can into the dirty machine that reads the barcode and tallies up the total. While plugging can after can into the hole I read a sign that says “we will only accept $7.20 worth of cans per day per person”, what?! I look back to the flurry of activity at my truck, my wife churning through the bed of the truck sorting cans into the appropriate baskets. This must be much much more than $7.20 I thought to myself. And it was. Each time the total on the machine would fill up, break down or reach $7.20 it would spit out the receipt. In all we had over $50 worth of deposit receipts, soiled clothes, hungry stomachs and a nasty black coating on our fingertips.
This exercise was three months ago. How do I know? I was reminded this morning when I looked at the fridge and saw what is left of the stack of deposit receipts, which has the date printed clearly on them. They are on the fridge so that we can grab a couple the next time we go to the store and use them with our normal purchases. Since the store actually enforces the $7.20 rule we can’t take them all at once and must piecemeal it. I’m sure it’s obvious but we continually forget to grab some before heading off to the store or they are inconveniently at home when we are conveniently passing the store and it wouldn’t be worth the extra gas and time to go get them. So they sit on the fridge until we remember to use them up as a constant reminder that we will not do this again.
What do we do now you ask? We recycle. But we don’t take the cans into the redemption centers, we just toss them into our multipurpose recycling tote. Ah, what a relief. Toss it in and take it to the curb once every two weeks. After all it probably ends up going to the same recycling center anyway, I just don’t get my nickel now.
I would have loved to continue to give our cans to the children that come asking, but apparently the nickel isn’t worth the work for them either.
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Hi Chris,
Can redemption in Oregon is something I happen to know quite a bit about! And you indeed have options;
1) If you have mostly cans, take them to a Fred Meyer store. They have the CanDo which is a bulk feed machine. They also have the OneStops which will take back all three materials in one machine.
2) All stores (over 5000 sq. ft.) are allowed to limit the number of returns per person per day to 144. This is to limit fraud mostly. So it is better to do your redemption every week or at least once a month. Although some stores will allow thier customers to redeem more. It depends on the customer service philosophy of the store.
3) If you live around Portland or any of the metro areas, there are sometimes homeless guys or retirees that wait around the machine hoping that you will leave the cans for them to process. Many of my friends do this as a way of helping out rather than handing them money directly.
4) If you want to curbside recycle, that’s fine. But understand that those deposits that you are forfieting are being kept by the beer and soda manufacturers. They use the unclaimed deposits to fund the cost of picking up and processing the containers. Just so you know that you are basically donating your money to corporations. In light of that, maybe you can check with your local schools and see if they ever have a can drive. The can drives are very lucrative fund raisers.
5) After Jan 1, 2009, your wish will be granted. The law will take effect that all water bottles will also have a 5 cent deposit. As well, each store will have to take back all brands, regardless of whether or not they sell it. So if you buy Kirkland soda at Costco, you can take it back to your local Safeway. This was a major problem for consumers, who didn’t remember where they got thier micro-brew from. Now, it doesn’t matter. As long as the store you return it to sells beer, they have to accept any brand of beer.
Oregon was the first state in the country to pass The Bottle Bill. Now 10 other states have followed suit, and there is a law pending to pass a national bottle bill. Although I have very little hope for that because the Grocers and the Beverage Manufacturers spend tons of money to make sure that never happens. I really encourage you to learn more at http://www.bottlebill.org. Or feel free to contact me if you have any questions.
Thanks for recycling! It’s a great thing!