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Comment by jimmar | Hacker News Reader

I live in Michigan and I hate the bottle deposits. I would strongly prefer just putting bottles in recycling. Bottle deposit machines break down frequently, the machines fill up, they only take cans sold at the store you bought them from, that part of the store smells bad and is dirty and sticky, and the cans take up a non-trivial amount of space in your home.

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I'm a lifelong Oregonian and I agree. Taking bottles back for redemption is a pain. The places stink, there's always a line, and always one or two broken machines. Then you get a whole $10.

I just stick everything in regular recycling.

I would guess homeless people are the only reason it's anywhere near 90%. Everyone I know does curb side recycling.

I think you've identified a point against your argument without realizing it. If we didn't put dollar value on recycling, the recycling wouldn't be performed at the rate it currently is.

Michigan is different however. When you spend half the year surrounded by snow and freezing temps, even the idea of going outside is numbing.

I was living in Michigan and Illinois this last year, and they are light-years away when it comes to interest and availability of recycling process, compared to Oregon.

>When you spend half the year surrounded by snow and freezing temps, even the idea of going outside is numbing

I've seen you make this comment twice in this thread and while you say you've lived in Michigan I think you drastically underestimate the resiliency of the majority of Michiganders. It was negative wind chill recently and now that it's back up to the mid 20s I see tons of people walking around without a coat on. The cold doesn't bother us that much.

I understand the resiliency of Michiganders, my point was about maintaining incentive for the bottle program. If there was no deposit, how many people would collect bottles on the side of the road?

I mean, this is the reality of using a product. Should all the difficult parts and smells be removed, or should you have to experience the downsides as well as the upsides of consuming.

> they only take cans sold at the store you bought them from

That might be the biggest issue. Around here (Finland) the deposit system is universal; most beverage containers are standardized and in the system by default. And the machines accept containers not within the system, they just won't give you money for them, so you don't have to worry accidentally mixing containers with deposit and those without.

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