A story in the Boston Sunday Globe revealed that consumers returned and recovered their nickel deposits on only 65.7 percent of the 2.2 billion bottles and cans purchased last year. This was the lowest rate since the bottle deposit law went into effect back in 1983. Last year the State pocketed $35 million in unredeemed bottle fees.
It seems to have gotten harder and harder to redeem bottles and cans. It’s a filthy and time consuming chore to try to recoup the 5 cent deposit. I try to take the empties back to a supermarket when I go shopping because especially now with the increase in gas prices I don’t want to make additional trips – it’s just not cost effective. It’s also become very frustrating because many facilities that have machines don’t accept everything, that’s if the machines are not full or broken. If you buy a store brand item, you just can’t return it at any old place – you have to go to the store where you brought it from. I don’t always shop at the same chain store because I’m forced to switch and go where I can get the best bargains that particular week.
This whole process has become an effort in futility and just another way that the state can make money (sort of another hidden tax of 5%). Thank God I have space in my house to make the various separations between what’s to be put out in the recycle bin and what is to be redeemed at Shaw’s, Stop & Shop, Roche Bros., Trader Joe’s and the liquor store. The process is now more complex than some of the sort schemes I had to memorize when I sorted mail at the Post Office. And believe me you have to go along way to make things more complex than they do at the Post Office. Just ask anyone that’s moved and had their mail forwarded.
My garage is where I make the 7 to 8 separations. What do people with limited space such as apartments do? I’m even tempted to make a separation of bottles that can only be redeemed in Maine. I just have to find a way to remember to take them whenever I’m headed there.
Last week someone in my household screwed up the sort plan I had cleverly devised. Just like in the Post Office someone came along and threw some bottles in the wrong bin. The Post Office cleverly calls these errors mis-sorts. Unbeknownst to little old me, I picked up two full bags and headed to the supermarket. When I got there, I started the process of feeding the plastic bottles eating machines. When I got a third of the way through, the bottles being fed were rejected. That’s when I realized that half the bag was full of missorted bottles (non redeemables). These were the ones that should have been placed in the blue box that has all the recyclables that go out in the trash pickup.
I decided that I wasn’t going to give these a return trip home and threw them out in the supermarket’s trash. When I was through I hit the button and got a little slip with a credit of 95 cents. I did my shopping and purchased more of these bottles that would eventually have to find their way back here. I headed home making plans along the way about the retraining I would have to do at home. First I had to find the culprit who didn’t know my scheme.
When I got home I decided to retrain all five people in the house and I even had them sign off on a training sheet like they do in the Post Office, that way I could hold them responsible when they said “I don’t know" in future. As I reached in my shirt pocket to get a pen, I pulled up the 95 cents credit receipt I had gotten from the bottle return machine. Darn! All that and I forgot to redeem that stupid piece of paper. Now I would have to wait until I went to the store again. I had one other thing to remember to take along with me the next time.
It’s become a real hassle and I think it’s time that we push to change this law ASAP. What do you think?
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