Can Redemption
- Thread starter josh4cy
- Start date
You sure? I haven't been there for about three months, but I guess I would be surprised if this operation moved to Des Moines. The place I'm talking about is on the west side of South Ankeny Blvd immediately north of Benchwarmers.
People forget, the original law was signed into place in 1978 or 79. There weren't near the carbonated beverages, beer, wine, and liquor there are today.
When it was brought up in the legislature wanting to change the law, the recycling faithful wanted to add all beverages to the list to be recycled. That would have added all bottled water, tea, sports drinks, juices, etc. The Iowa Grocers Association fought back and the push ultimately died in the legislature.
As someone who used to work customer service when cans were brought into the store, I can share lots of stories about things you found in cans and bottles. It was not pleasant and often disgusting.
I throw all mine in my recycling bin at home or at work. I don't drink pop and the few cans I do have aren't worth taking to the store.
When it was brought up in the legislature wanting to change the law, the recycling faithful wanted to add all beverages to the list to be recycled. That would have added all bottled water, tea, sports drinks, juices, etc. The Iowa Grocers Association fought back and the push ultimately died in the legislature.
As someone who used to work customer service when cans were brought into the store, I can share lots of stories about things you found in cans and bottles. It was not pleasant and often disgusting.
I throw all mine in my recycling bin at home or at work. I don't drink pop and the few cans I do have aren't worth taking to the store.
It did move to Des Moines. It closed in Ankeny on June 2. Its now at 1501 NE Broadway.
Running a redemtion center would not fix my problem with the system. It's a nasty, time consuming task that most people on this thread avoid.
I think the solution is to require garbage companies in the state to recycle anything they can. Then once recycling practices are established accross the state then get rid of the can deposit. Lets fimd a permanent solution. Not put a band aid on it.
I's time to phase-out the can-deposit. It wasan environmentally smart step when it was introduced — although it seems like it was less about "renewable" resources and more about reduction of litter.
Either way, curbside recycling has become much more common, and now return-for-deposit seems archaic.
I happen to live in a "10-cent deposit state," but our city has had twice-monthly curbside recycling for about a decade. It's as easy as tossing it in the garbage.
Either way, curbside recycling has become much more common, and now return-for-deposit seems archaic.
I happen to live in a "10-cent deposit state," but our city has had twice-monthly curbside recycling for about a decade. It's as easy as tossing it in the garbage.
Our local lodge collects and sorts cans and bottles, and then donates the money to the local school and children's organizations. It is smelly and we stink of old beer, but raise between $400 to $500 a month. Nee to raise the deposit to 10 cents and give the recycling company 2 instead of 1 cent.
I disagree with this and am saddened to see all the comments on here about people just throwing the cans away. There truly is no such thing as "throwing away." If the cans aren't recycled then they end up in a landfill and it is a waste of the raw materials, fossil fuel-based energy (usually), and water used to create that new can not to recycle it. Every statistic I've ever read suggests the bottle bill increases recycling rates:
http://www.bottlebill.org/about/benefits/waste.htm
Obviously, consider the source of the statistics above, but other studies I've seen over time conclude the same, I just didn't spend the time trying to dig them up. Anyway, the study above seems to suggest the average rate of can recycling is 40 to 50% in states without the bottle bill from 1984 to 2004 (a large sample size). While recycling in those states with the bottle bill was 20 to 30% points higher on average.
If every municipality had recycling, then I'd be less opposed to repeal of the bill as the post above seems to call for, but right now, count me as one who thinks we should be increasing the tax to 10c on the bottle bill to tick up recycling rates even more. It has been a net good for our planet and I don't understand the "throw away" attitude. Some of it may just be tongue-in-cheek comments and jokes, but for the serious folks, I don't understand why you would just throw them away. Resources are not infinite. Also, the assumption that everything gets sorted or a system is in place to recycle commingled trash is foolish. A few municipalities do really take trash this seriously, but most (particularly in the western states outside of the Pacific Ocean bordering states) don't and to think that some entity is just going to do it for you, is silly.
Don't believe me that stuff like this gets thrown away, go tour your neighboring landfill and see what's going in there. I toured one for a Chamber of Commerce event in central Iowa several years ago and TONS of recyclable stuff is in there - not many redeemable cans as far as my observation goes (probably because of the bottle bill) - but lots of other recyclable stuff.
That system would work if the market for producing cans from raw materials wasn't cheaper than using recycled cans. That's the problem with the free market, it doesn't account for negative externalities. Once raw materials are more finite and harder to mine, then yes, companies will be salvaging like crazy, but then it might be too late.
The free market generally works efficiently well for things, but it is not good at preserving and protecting the very fundamental natural resources and ecosystem services (like bees pollinating our food, or the quickly dwindling, once vast tropical forests of this planet that help control weather and water patterns, give us medicine and other interesting discoveries, etc.) we all rely upon in the modern economy. Trust me, I'm not a believer in the government regulating certain aspects of the economy (stay out), but environmental regulation is important.
Maybe HyVee was less worried about having to handle the volume of cans and more worried about people coming in with an unlimited number of cans and bottles and other customers not being able to get their turn when they were bringing in a reasonable amount of returns. It isn't like HyVee has 20 machines so people can always find an open one.My spouse had that problem with HyVee a while back, when they were limiting the amount they would pay back at a given time. His point was that they didn't limit how much he could buy at one time but they DID limit how many he could return. He won. Then again, he can be a real PITA if he feels he is in the right.
On another note, I feel really bad for the people in this thread who don't have running water at their homes so they can splash a little bit of it in an empty can or bottle so they don't get all nasty when waiting to be recycled. Maybe they should use the redemption money to pay their water bill.
That means the free market is telling you that it takes less energy, capital, and effort to produce new cans / bottles than it does to recycle them. There would be still be a market for cans at least as that scarp aluminum would still be valuable. It probably just wouldn't end up as new cans. It takes a lot of energy to smelt aluminum.
I was at the landfill a couple of years ago, a garbage truck dumped and out came a bunch of new shirts still in packaging. The business just threw them away instead of taking them to Goodwill or another clothing charity. I was pretty disappointed to see that. And yes I grabbed a couple of them, they must have been tossed in last because the packaging wasn't even dirty.
I take them in and the money goes in my son's college fund. It's not much, and I make plenty of money. But if you are going to charge me $1.20 for every case, I'm going to get it back. When tailgating I leave them for the collectors. We really need to get rid of the deposit and just make sure people recycle.
Just took this last batch to WalMart, as it's at the front of the store in Ankeny. But they didn't take some of them, so I went to Hy Vee, where they didn't take half of those. But when I redeemed the tickets at customer service she paid me for the cans and bottles that the machines didn't take. The bitchy lady then proceeded to tell me I should just recycle them next time. It was only a few cans. Good customer service. One of the many reasons you won't see me shop at HyVee.
Just took this last batch to WalMart, as it's at the front of the store in Ankeny. But they didn't take some of them, so I went to Hy Vee, where they didn't take half of those. But when I redeemed the tickets at customer service she paid me for the cans and bottles that the machines didn't take. The bitchy lady then proceeded to tell me I should just recycle them next time. It was only a few cans. Good customer service. One of the many reasons you won't see me shop at HyVee.
