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My parents collect cans for a living

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Re: My parents collect cans for a living

#121

Post by qw »

EE84M3i wrote: post #108
kwhitefoot wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here in Norway a half litre or smaller container has a deposit of 2 kr, bigger containers are 3 kr (22 and 33 US cent respectively). But it isn't the size of the deposit that drives the return rate (95% or more here in Norway) it is the ease of doing it. Here all shops that sell such goods are required to accept the containers in return even if they were not purchased in that shop and even if they are of a different…

>Here all shops that sell such goods are required to accept the containers in return How does this work for convenience stores or other non-supermarkets that incidentally sell drinks in cans/bottles? They have to have a machine?

The machine is completely optional and just there to save time if they get a lot of deposits. They can handle it manually if they want to.

There is a limit to how large the deposit can be for stores without a machine. If you come with a big trash bag with bottles/cans, they have the right to refuse and refer you to a place with a machine (most grocery stores have machines)

Re: My parents collect cans for a living

#122

Post by gnicholas »

kwhitefoot wrote: post #92
gnicholas wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It can never give you more than it cost — the redemption value gets added to the cost of the beverage. So a $1 bottle of Coke would cost $1.05 if the redemption value were 5¢ And it would cost $1.50 if the redemption value were 50¢. The reason the redemption value has not gone up much is that people would balk at paying so much for the goods upfront, IMO. Adding 20¢ per can would add nearly $5 to the cost of a 24-pac…

They would soon get used to it. People are hardly going to give up drinking sugary soft drinks because of high deposit values. They might be reluctant but if there is no other way to get that sugary hit they will do it and eventually it will be just how things are done.

You're right that they won't give up drinking soda! But the experience of Philadelphia, [1] which imposed a per-ounce soda tax (later repealed) shows us that these tend to drive consumers to other jurisdictions (NJ) to buy groceries. This means Philadelphia lost out not only on soda sales, but also on other groceries purchased at the same time.

Another issue that arises is that people will actually transport recyclables across state lines to arbitrage the differences in redemption value. [2] This only happens if there are large enough disparities, but in the US this is almost certain to happen due to the different policy choices made by nearby states.

1: https://anderson-review.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/...

2: https://www.recyclingtoday.com/article/arrests-in-16-million...

Re: My parents collect cans for a living

#125

Post by cycomanic »

0x0nyandesu wrote: post #45
throw8932894 wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quoted post unavailable.

For whatever reason HN nerds love stories about recycling even though this family is clearly poor and not making good financial decisions.

Ah yes the good old, being poor is a character flaw. There's plenty of evidence that being poor is primarily due to nothing else but lack of money. But the rich/middle class love to feel superior by saying people are poor because of bad financial decisions.

Re: My parents collect cans for a living

#126

Post by throemdiwo »

bjourne wrote: post #85

Not to be contrarian, but it seems like the shame around poverty is just as strong as it ever was. Or else why are all these stories and anecdotes on the form "My parents collected cans but I made a career and I don't collect cans" or "I used to collect cans but then I got some kind of break through my hard work and now I don't collect cans anymore". It's a lot like depression: "I used to be depressed but then I work…

No post body was provided.

Re: My parents collect cans for a living

#127

Post by runj__ »

oaiey wrote: post #115
Aissen wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Saw that at your neighboor's in Copenhagen, and after the first outrage of paying +50cts per drink, I understood that I was seeing a glimpse the future… If littering is equivalent to throwing money, you simply won't do it. Weird side-effect: homeless people might ask for your empty bottle and do the collection. Not sure how I feel about that though…

> Weird side-effect: homeless people might ask for your empty bottle and do the collection. Not sure how I feel about that though… It becomes a respectful cooperation. When you party in a park, you place your containers next to a trash so a homeless can pick it up without searching the trash. They basically help you partying hard (and not caring/carrying about the bottles) and earn (by hard work) a bit of money.

I don't know about "respectful" for both parties. Bottle collectors trying to take/steal not yet empty bottles and cans has become more of a rule than an exception in parks in central Stockholm.

I'm still very much in favour of container deposit but I'm growing really tired of forceful collecting.

Re: My parents collect cans for a living

#128

Post by max_hammer »

faeyanpiraat wrote: post #120
oaiey wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, not everyone needs to do a reverse vending machine. Just hand them back to the cashier and he returns you money. Goes that far that when a restaurant sells a full bottle they need to take it back. We have this system also in Germany since the late 80s (I think) and it works very well. Current incentive ranges from 8ct (beer glass bottles ... beer lobby always has exceptions ;)) to 25ct (plastic bottles)

Do the bottles need to be full size, or do they accept crushed ones?

If barcode is readable they accept semi-crushed bottles.

Re: My parents collect cans for a living

#129

Post by biztos »

faeyanpiraat wrote: post #120
oaiey wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, not everyone needs to do a reverse vending machine. Just hand them back to the cashier and he returns you money. Goes that far that when a restaurant sells a full bottle they need to take it back. We have this system also in Germany since the late 80s (I think) and it works very well. Current incentive ranges from 8ct (beer glass bottles ... beer lobby always has exceptions ;)) to 25ct (plastic bottles)

Do the bottles need to be full size, or do they accept crushed ones?

For plastic bottles at least for the machine you would have to un-crush it, it scans the bottle.

For beer bottles, I dunno, try it out and report back?

Re: My parents collect cans for a living

#130

Post by rbanffy »

sien wrote: post #7

From the article "Jessica is a proud first-generation Ecuadorian-American and a second-year Percy Ellis Sutton Search for Education, Elevation, and Knowledge (SEEK) student at Baruch College majoring in business management with a minor in law and policy." Jessia is the American dream. First generation, got to college and writing like that. Lots of Americans concentrate on what is wrong with America. There is value in…

> Jessia is the American dream.

She's the one who made it, unlike thousands of others, who worked equally hard, and didn't.

No family should have both parents working 12 hours a day just to survive, period.

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