What is the skinny on bottle recycling? Some states still have deposits on pop and beer bottles, most do not as they are recycled. Since deposits on bottles were a part of my youth, I always figured it must be worth something. I was 11 years old a working in the back of a grocery store putting bottles in cases for $.10 per. Is it a waste of resources?
There’s a tax payer paying that $0.10 per bottle, but it’s probably a bit higher than that.
Frankly, the energy needed to purify and heat the tap water that the bottles are cleaned with, added to the cost of melting the bottles down, costs more than just processing new glass. If the above statement were not true, somebody would pay you for those bottles.
The bottle deposits of your youth were a different kind of recycling, in that they were reused. Sent back to Pepsi, Coke or whoever, washed, refilled and sent back out.
The bottle and can deposits of today, in some states, is a way for them to curb the trash build up in streets and alleys, from thoughtless people who couldn’t be bothered to find a trash can.