BoatBanter.com - Refining "Green" trash

On Thu, 15 Oct 2009 23:13:26 -0300, "Don White"
wrote:

"John H." wrote in message
.. .
On Thu, 15 Oct 2009 19:00:53 -0300, "Don White"
wrote:

wrote in message
...
On Thu, 15 Oct 2009 11:59:39 -0400, John H.
wrote:

You missed the point, these things get burned here, not put in the
dump. Deposits are just a tax. It may be a handy way to employ
unskilled labor in a make work job but that is the only redeeming
thing.

They could be burnt after being returned to the store. The stores
would just be centralized collection points. I'll bet a lot fewer
empties would be in the ditches, on the golf courses, or floating in
the bay.

I suppose that might make a lot of sense if you live in a place where
they have a huge litter problem but I bet it would be cheaper in the
long run to pay people to pick up the trash. I know you think that is
"free" in a place with a deposit law but I would compare the cost of
product before the deposit is added and show you where you are paying.

To start with, most places where this happens pay the merchant 2 cents
a bottle or so, just for handling them. That money comes from you
somewhere.

You missed the point. The deposit should be steep enough that people
want to bring them back - or, better yet, not buy them at all. Then
the energy used to make the damn things could be saved.

So you don't care if everything delivered in a bottle got a 5-10%
price increase or that the price increase got spread out across the
whole grocery store inventory?
Even if the deposit was a one for one swap with no real cost
(fantasy), there is still a handling charge on the empties.
They stopped using deposit bottles for a reason., It is very expensive
and uses almost fuel to return them as it does to deliver the product
in the first place.
If you simply burn the plastic bottles to produce electricity it is
simply a one way fuel delivery charge with the use as a container as a
bonus.

Up here...ten cents deposit on every bottle, can or carton...including
milk.
If you haul them back to the recycle depot, you get a nickel for each
bottle/carton.
Most people don't bother and just put the empties out in a 'blue bag'.
This
had caused an army of characters to roam around all garbage night digging
in
those blue bags for their treasure. They carry half a dozen full leaf type
bags on their 'borrowed' grocery store carts to cash in.
This has been going on for years .

What do the stores do with the bottles that are returned?

They don't go back to the stores anymore. You have to take them to an
official recycling depot.
They are then put in hugh containers and shipped out to be melted down and
the material re-used.

I just re-read what you said. They charge ten cents deposit but only
refund five cents? Sounds like the store, or someone (the government)
is definitely ripping off the bottle purchasers.

I like the concept though. Anything that would reduce the amount of
plastic bottles thrown on the roads, waters, golf courses, or
whereever is a good thing.