Oregon Launches First Statewide Refillable Bottle System in U.S.

A month ago I was camping in upstate NY (northwest of Syracuse). While driving around I saw a number of signs for "Redemption Center". One of the people I was camping with was convinced it was a religious thing, another said it was for drug addiction recovery. As it turns out it was for returning bottles/cans. These places still exist in NY (at least in rural upstate NY).

https://www.dec.ny.gov/chemical/59639.html

Cheers!

 

Huh, your post prompted me to do a google search and there's actually still a bunch of them around here too! Many of them seem pretty rinky dink compared to where I had worked, and some others are associated with the larger recycling companies proper (so they do more than just bottles and cans), but they're there.

I wonder what the clientele is like in terms of just every day folks dropping off their recycling vs. people who specifically collect cans and bottles? I imagine it varies quite a bit based on location. Either way it calls into question my skepticism about return centers at least a bit.

 

I have no input here; we just drove on by.

Do you think this is more of a rural vs. suburban/urban thing?

Cheers!

 

The map of locations I found was hard to make a lot of sense of because it included all sorts of different types of places under the heading "redemption center" (ranging all the way up to large places that take scrap metal and that sort of stuff). I didn't have the gumption to really unpack everything.

The standalone can/bottle places seemed like they were more prevalent in less affluent urban areas where you might guess the population was skewed towards folks who seek out that return money more than the average suburban family (and where real estate costs for a center were presumably very low too). But there were at least a couple suburban spots mixed in as well.

I guess the short answer is that I don't have much useful input either. I'd be curious on the stats of who tends to curbside recycle vs. return for deposit when both options are available to people. I leave mine on the curb but I try to keep the bottles and cans separate from the other stuff because I know there's a guy who comes around collecting them in our neighborhood sometimes.

 

Yes, you can never underestimate the laziness of average Americans. But perhaps there is a chance for success in a state like Oregon (or at least the Portland area) with a population that will embrace environmentalism even if it's not as convenient.

 

On the fabled trip I went east at the start of the 1994-95 N.P.S.L. indoor soccer season: The one where I and Keith Kokinda (yes - that Keith Kokinda) recorded two test broadcasts of Chicago POWER games trying to get us a Chicago radio outlet, in Baltimore, MD. and Philadelphia, PA.; I dropped Keith off at BWI and he flew back to Cleveland, OH. on Sunday. I headed back to Chicago, in the 1987 Chevrolet Sprint, but I went via Harrisburg, and St. Mary's, PA. on Sunday, and Monday.
I bought a lot of cases of beer at a beer shop in Harrisburg on Monday. The cases with the empty bottles are still taking up space in the beer cellar downstairs, including a case of 16-oz. Yuengling returnable bottles.
Yes, I drank from the endless tap at Straub.
I bought 12-oz. returnable bottles here in Chicago for quite some time. Even after having the craft beer epiphany. I was especially partial to the old-time brands like those from Huber, G. Heileman (Stag), and Cold Spring (Fox Deluxe). Plus, those were ones my dad [R.I.P.] would drink as well.

 

Yuengling didn't stop using the returnable/refillable bottles until 2010:
Returnable bottles leave beer drinkers cold
Few breweries still use bottles; Yuengling also to end practice