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Posted: 8/9/2005 1:49:42 PM EDT
Here in Maine there is a 5 cent deposit on every can and bottle of soft drink/beer/etc and a 15 cent deposit on wine and heavy liquors. I work at a restaurant and the management recently offered that any employee could take home the collection of bottles and cans if they so desired.
One person had been doing it for the past few weeks but had been pretty lazy about it so they decided to offer the collection to someone who'd be interested. No one stepped up so I went for it and now have about 12 garbage bags full of cans and bottles sitting in the yard. I managed to organize about 4 of the bags into collections of 200 five-cent items. After a good half-hour I had sorted 600 cans total and still have 10 bags left, with the more expensive deposits still waiting. $30 for half an hour of work with still 2/3rds of the bags to be sorted isn't half bad if I may say so! I was looking for a small alternate source of $$$ to spend and I think I may have found it. All these cans and bottles were from about a week and a half of accumulation, so I bet I'll be into the $100s in no time!  Anyone else do this? Did you make any decent dough? A local dude around here drove around for hours collecting cans every Sunday and after about 10 years about enough to buy a car. |
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Posted: 8/9/2005 1:51:41 PM EDT
[#1]
IBTSR
In Before The Seinfeld Reference 
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Posted: 8/9/2005 1:56:31 PM EDT
[#2]
The mothers day mail run.
"Newman you magnificent bastard!" Seinfeld reference complete. |
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Posted: 8/9/2005 2:02:39 PM EDT
[#3]
and I'm betting he spent just as much on gas money driving for those 10 years collecting the cans |
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Posted: 8/9/2005 2:29:27 PM EDT
[#4]
I save all my bottles and cans. 5 cents per can ands up.
I dont do it for the environment or any hippie type crap. I do it because its my money. |
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Posted: 8/9/2005 2:37:23 PM EDT
[#5]
So what resturaunt do you work at?
 Just kidding bro . . . I live in Maine too, so I was just curious. If you collect 20,000 5 cent bottles, that is 10K I used to work at Street & Company in the Old Port. It was a pretty nice resturaunt back in the day. Are you local or are you way up in the boondocks? Always looking for a fellow ARFcomer/Mainer to shoot with.  |
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Posted: 8/9/2005 2:45:35 PM EDT
[#6]
In Michigan, you pay 10 cents extra up front to buy any soda container. Then when you bring it back, you get your 10 cents back. Good luck finding cans and bottles in the street (except for spring water bottles).
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Posted: 8/9/2005 2:46:51 PM EDT
[#7]
In CA, they have a Cash Refund Value (CRV), but I've yet to find a place that actually lets you get it back......
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Posted: 8/9/2005 2:48:44 PM EDT
[#8]
We got the same thing going in NY too.
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Posted: 8/9/2005 2:49:22 PM EDT
[#9]
How is that supposed to work? |
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Posted: 8/9/2005 2:49:36 PM EDT
[#10]
The amount of deposit is carefully chosen to make maximize the amount of unclaimed deposits.
When I was a kid, the deposit on a returnable bottle was $0.10, it was quite a bit, and those containers got returned. Today it is $0.04 for a normal sized and $0.08 for a large size. Only a small fraction get returned. Billions of dollars of "deposit" money go uncollected because unless you have some access to a huge amount of them, it isn't worth the trouble to save and return them. Guess where does the money go? That's right, all the extra "deposit" money goes to the state. It is not a "deposit" it is a tax, plain and simple. Not only do I not save and return my bottles, the whole idea of a bottle tax pisses me of to the degree that I make it a point of tossing them in the garbage even if there is a recycle bin nearby. |
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Posted: 8/9/2005 2:53:40 PM EDT
[#11]
Must be new math. |
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Posted: 8/9/2005 3:03:21 PM EDT
[#12]
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Posted: 8/9/2005 3:05:41 PM EDT
[#13]
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Posted: 8/9/2005 3:21:56 PM EDT
[#14]
Any place that buys aluminum is usually set up to give you the added CRV back, that you had to pay when you originally bought your beer, orange juice, soda, tomato juice, tea, etc. Now that I moved to a free state, I no longer have to deal with that BS and put my cans in the trash. |
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Posted: 8/9/2005 4:45:01 PM EDT
[#15]
.05 of 20k is $1000 I'm on the coast about halfway up, near Camden. What about you? |
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Posted: 8/9/2005 4:46:23 PM EDT
[#16]
We always did in Michigan.....
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Posted: 8/9/2005 4:49:12 PM EDT
[#17]
I wish Texas would adopt a deposit policy.
I also wish it were $1 per can and $1 per bottle. The countryside would no longer be littered. |
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Posted: 8/9/2005 4:51:30 PM EDT
[#18]
sure, I save mine too. Make great targets, oh and I do donate them to kids in the neighborhood too.
Usually like, "Hey, you! Mow my lawn and I'll let ya have these!" I've never even bothered to count them. Must be a bunch, I've had the same boy come back 4 times this summer askin to mow again! |
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Posted: 8/9/2005 4:53:23 PM EDT
[#19]
We drink way too much (including soda, people!) NOT to redeem the damn things (ya pay it when you buy the stuff)...
I HATE IT It's FILTHY and the bottle bill people are all EVIL DO-ers who should be buried in land fills filled with Old Milwaulkee cans!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm sorry....what was the question again? |
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Posted: 8/9/2005 4:53:55 PM EDT
[#20]
I thought that also. I'm in a state with no deposit fairly often, a little dumpster diving and I could really move towards early retirement  since the bottle places near my house don't check to see if they are marked.
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Posted: 8/9/2005 5:19:51 PM EDT
[#21]
We save our cans but don't go out of our way to collect them from others.
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Posted: 8/9/2005 5:24:52 PM EDT
[#22]
I used to keep a garbage bag in my car for cans and bottles when I was a cart pusher at the grocery store. people would leave empties all over the parking lot so I'd collect them
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Posted: 8/9/2005 5:31:46 PM EDT
[#23]
The deposit is hypocricy because if they really wanted them recycled, they'd outlaw disposing of them like they do with tin cans and plastic containers(non-soda bottles) here. These containers are never thrown in the trash here because the dump won't except them. They must be in a seperate bag and are put in a seperate area in the dump so they can be recycled. That GUARANTEES recycling.
It's merely a tax because they know that most of us are too busy to go to a seperate facility than where our garbage is disposed and wait in line for slow machines that jam and fill up and make you wait even longer so the employees can prep them for you. |
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Posted: 8/9/2005 5:32:40 PM EDT
[#24]
I let the wife do it - it's her allowance money.
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Posted: 8/9/2005 5:41:07 PM EDT
[#25]
Whenever I'm up north, visiting my relatives, they look at me like I'm insane when I toss empties in the trash. "WTH are you doing? That's 10 cents!"
 Oops.
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Posted: 8/9/2005 5:49:13 PM EDT
[#26]
Not now, but about 30 years ago the state of Arkansas doubled the deposit on all glass bottles. Regular sized coke bottles went from 5 cents to 10 cents, 32oz. soda bottles (remember those?) were worth a quarter. I made a bunch of money walking the ditches and cashing them in at Floyd's country store.
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Posted: 8/9/2005 5:51:07 PM EDT
[#27]
Kept me fed in med school during the lean time. One time I had a hand full of change and thats it. I then found $25 worth of cans in the house and the school. Held me over until I could get an emergency loan.
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Posted: 8/9/2005 6:41:01 PM EDT
[#28]
oh shit, I mulitiplied .5 instead of .05
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Posted: 8/9/2005 7:22:44 PM EDT
[#29]
I'd love all bottles and cans here to be 10 cents deposit. I hardly buy soda and what not so I'd be loving the return $$ from deposits. However, the restaurant I'm at goes through an ungodly amount of wine and booze, so the 15 cent deposits will make up the difference 
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Posted: 8/9/2005 7:34:31 PM EDT
[#30]
with our $.10 deposit and "Frat Row" being about a block away, I often fill my gas tank with the loot from a 10 minute walk with a trash bag. and the ones from home get us a night out at the end of the month (or at least dinner out...)
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Posted: 8/9/2005 7:42:11 PM EDT
[#31]
The wife lets ME do it. It's MY allowance money. |
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Posted: 8/9/2005 7:45:20 PM EDT
[#32]
Here in MI we do pay up front for deposit returns. 2 guys gort arrested trying to return thoousands of out of state cans into bottle/can return machines. Yes, its against the law , they found out the hard way.
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Posted: 8/9/2005 8:09:23 PM EDT
[#33]
Quite funny.... i just went into the MI hometown forum before i check out for the night, and some dude from Georgia is asking if he can return crushed cans etc.. in MI. Of course he got SYS MSG'D about illegal activities...
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Posted: 8/9/2005 9:13:49 PM EDT
[#34]
Here in NH we don't have any can or bottle deposit, So we just take all of our cans and bottles over to Maine and cash in on the deposits. 
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Posted: 8/9/2005 9:16:36 PM EDT
[#35]
My kids collect them. We do not have a deposit on wine bottles, should but do not. Patty
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Posted: 8/9/2005 9:19:06 PM EDT
[#36]
Do the cans have to be in intact or can they be crushed?
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Posted: 8/9/2005 9:20:55 PM EDT
[#37]
yeah, how do they let you cash them in?
When I lived in Iowa I tried this once. The place I went to you had to feed un-crushed cans one at a time into a damn machine which would then spit out a recipt for you to take in and exchange for cash. What a joke. I couldn't feed enough cans into that thing in an hour to make it worth my time. They should do it by the pound. |
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Posted: 8/9/2005 9:49:33 PM EDT
[#38]
"Canning" is the occupation of most of the bums and homeless in my patrol area. Its also popular with illegal immigrant families who spend the whle night dumster diving for cans/bottles.
I do not save them. They go in the garbage with everything else. |
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Posted: 8/10/2005 3:19:15 AM EDT
[#39]
Shoot...around here we call it BEER money! |
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Posted: 8/10/2005 3:25:35 AM EDT
[#40]
We have bottle redemption centers-I think the bottle redemption places are paid something like $ .07 per can, since the pay out .05 per can you can make a small profit if you want to spend all day in a room filled with the stench of stale beer.  I just take them in bags and the people there count them and pay you, though here you can just tell them how many cans and they'll usually just trust you and give you the money. |
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Posted: 8/10/2005 10:23:56 AM EDT
[#41]
I live in Texas, we dont get any deposit money or the like for returning cans, but we can sell the cans back to those companies that do buy aluminum.
My grandfather always saved his beer cans and now pretty much my whole family saves our cans. I remember back in the day you used to get alot more money than you do now though, but its still better than nothing. A few years back the city started a recycling program, then about a year after ti came out the newspaper printed an article stating how the city said the recycling program is costing more than they thought it would because most people werent recycling thier aluminim cans which is what would have helped fund the program, instead people were doing that themselves. Pretty much all we recycle is the newspaper. |
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Posted: 8/10/2005 10:26:32 AM EDT
[#42]
Holy crap, aint socialism grand. |
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Posted: 8/10/2005 10:27:22 AM EDT
[#43]
I think you have been razzed enough. |
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Posted: 8/10/2005 10:38:46 AM EDT
[#44]
About four or five times a year I like to go hiking in the hills above my house as the college guys like to go up there and have parties. They leave hundreds of beer cans and bottles everywhere and its ugly to see when you go on a hike. For years I have been bringing garbage bags with me and I pick up all of the cans/bottles when I am up there and cash them in. I make a good hunk of money doing it, its a good workout and I clean up the mess them damn punks make. We also keep all cans and bottle, as well as plastic water bottles as we get CRV for them too.
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Posted: 8/10/2005 10:51:33 AM EDT
[#45]
Donate them to the Lutheran Church we belong to , Rinsed. The non rinsed ones in the garage , to my buddy.
Hey you asked. |
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Posted: 8/11/2005 7:06:31 PM EDT
[#46]
Well I've sorted 1000 5-cent cans and plastic bottles, 50 15-cent wine bottles, and 50 5-cent glass bottles in the last few days. That's $60 earned so far!
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Posted: 8/12/2005 7:06:09 AM EDT
[#47]
The guys in the shop here at work fill up a big box. When the box is full they recruite an aprentice to shuff them in the return machine and then use the proceeds to buy pizzas for the shop.
When I was a kid here in MI I lived neer a park the teens partied at. They didn't want to take the empties back. I got lots of video game and candy money from that park. When I was in college people would throw BYOB parties to raise money for the rent. They would have several big garbage cans out for the empties and make a good amount of cash. At 10 cents a can very few cans are not returned. Kent |
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Posted: 8/12/2005 7:22:44 AM EDT
[#48]
It's nice to take back a case of empty beer cans and trade them in for a nice cold beer.
I know, we've already paid for it up front, but it still feels free. Actually, the biggest benefit here in Michigan is that beer cans and bottles NEVER litter the streets. |
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