The system exists in NYC. It is terrible. Sure there is a profession of people going through garbage and picking certain trash. But I pay for a whole bunch of bottles. and then i throw them away in my house. i don't go to the nearest depositry. it hurts me.
You could just return the bottles? The same system exists in Germany - I would just collect bottles in a crate or Ikea bag, and then when full take it to the return machine in the supermarket.
I don't know what the implementation is like in the USA, but perhaps it's an inconvenient implementation that's to blame, rather than the entire concept?
I think we don’t treat our trash with so much care. The most amount of recycling work we do is separate it into bins and keep it crushed so that it all fits. Do I Really want another bin collection for a bunch of bottles that are going to be returned for money? it’s just not worth it. And do I want to drive up the trash to a different facility than the one that comes to my house for collection? That’s more work. Probably more gas too.
> And do I want to drive up the trash to a different facility than the one that comes to my house for collection? That’s more work. Probably more gas too.
I guess a big difference is that in Europe, I can just walk 5 minutes to the nearest supermarket and deposit the recycling there. I think if the basic infrastructure is set up correctly, recycling is easy. It's the same amount of effort as throwing away non-recyclable waste.
sounds like you should stop buying it if it hurts you and switch to reusable containers. I do agree though, that the way it is implemented isn't great. ideally every store that collects a deposit fee would also be a place to give back the item.
In Denmark, small shops must refund at least the bottles they sell. Normal or large shops must refund all deposit bottles and cans.
Most people take the empties to a supermarket. People drinking in a public place often leave them for bottle collectors (often homeless etc) to gather.
