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Comment by emkoemko | Hacker News Reader

huh? this is common practice all over the world... you pay a bit extra when you return the bottles, cans etc to recycling facility you get back the extra you payed... where do you live that this is not happening?

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It _used_ to be very common in Europe. Now it's rarer, although still present in Belgium and Alsace, notably for beer.

Plastic bottles killed the "consigne", and it seems like we have neither the infrastructure, nor the will, to bring it back.

https://www.lemonde.fr/les-decodeurs/article/2017/11/15/recy...

I don't know which geopolitical crisis might put us on a different track. A massive shortage of corn sugar ? A popular hoax making parents believe that plastic bottles will turn their kids gay ?

Depends upon the state and only on some bottles. Plus the deposit is so low, no one returns the bottles.

There are people who go through every garbage can in my neighborhood every week looking for cans and bottles, so obviously someone returns them.

In the suburbs ? In some neighborhood people going trough trash will get hassled by the police. In the city (a poor city) were I live, people going through the trash are generaly chased away. Plus to go through everyone's trash you would need lots of people in the neighborhood, can you image the impact if that happens ?

Plus, ever try and return a bottle as a "trash collector" ? Stores will throw you out claiming the bottle was not purchased in the store. So I would say 90% of bottles thrown out end up in a land-fill or in the sea.

This is in the suburbs of Los Angeles. No one chases the guy who comes around to collect bottles from our recycling, because he is careful and doesn’t knock over the bins. Some of us leave the bottles and cans on the side of our trash cans to make it easier for him. He is always friendly when I say hi to him.

I am not sure what you mean by the store turning you away… there is a location where you turn the bottles and cans in to get paid, it is not connected to a store. It is run by the government.

I am not sure what's the term CRV or CV but where I live in CA it is definitely not 1 buck per bottle. Probably 5 cents. The coke/water bottle costs a lot more so adding 5 cents is a small tax and does not do much to change the behavior.

oh yea its not a large tax but it is happening for a long time, for sure we should just have dispensers and you bring your own bottle, just like we have now for shopping bags they are all gone you have to bring your own bag. This way you buy a nice metal or what ever bottle and reuse it for years.

That's the problem. The deposit cost should be an outsized portion of the total cost.

Where do you live that the deposit is 100% of the cost of the beverage? In the US some states will pay for bottles but it's generally a tiny amount, not worth the inconvenience for most people.

i meant there is already a cost just not that large...

You can buy 0.5l B-brand bottled water in Dutch supermarkets costing around 10 cents, plus 15 cents deposit.

I've lived and traveled most Europe and the Netherlands are the only place where I have seen this happening.

In Germany you pay 25 cents for recyclable bottle or 15 for reusable bottle…

In Estonia it's 10 cents per bottle/can, in Finland it can vary from 10 to 40 cents I think.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Container-deposit_legislation#...

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