Oregon is an interesting place to visit. As a Texan, I am constantly flabbergasted at the things that are going on here. This is one example. Oregon has had a 5 cent deposit on beverage containers for a long time. To the outside observer, this sounds very environmentally friendly, and it is. The only problem is that it is not people friendly in the least. You have to collect all those beverage containers and take them to a recycling spot to get your deposit back. This is one example of a recycling center, located at the local Fred Meyers grocery super store.
There are a few things noteworthy. First, it might appear to you that the floor is wet. Well, it is. It is wet and sticky from all those few little drops of remaining beverage in the bottom of the bottle or can.
Second, you will notice that there are shopping carts in evidence. They are full of empties. The machines that process your return have to be fed ONE AT A TIME!! If you have a shirtload of bottles then you might be there for a while. Actually, you can feed cans into a very small hopper in bunches, but they are processed one at a time.
Third, you cannot notice this because its a photo, but when you enter the recycling center, you are greeted by the stench of stale beer. This is worse than a fraternity on a Sunday morning. Standing on the sticky and smelly floor makes one really environmentally responsible, that's for sure. I just can't wait to sign up to be an official Oregon tree hugger and help destroy the logging business in Oregon and consequently increase unemployment and thereby assist the state to acquire more stimulus dollars that belong to the other 49 states. It's the American way now. King Barack is making sure of that.
Fourth, again this is only partially evident from the photo. There are two swarthy looking males standing in front of the two operating machines. The other two machines are broken. They each have a shopping cart full of containers, and one of them has a plastic garbage bag full of additional empties on the floor. Interestingly, neither of these gentlemen appears to speak English. What a surprise.
Fifth, you have to bring the cans in without crushing them. That is because the machines can only process cans which have the UPC code in the proper place. They have to roll around in a little tumbler to be read. That means you have a huge volume to handle unnecessarily.
Sixth, in conclusion, this is stupid. That is all I have to say about it.
Now, to Fred Meyer's credit, when I arrived with my 18 empty beer bottles neatly contained in the original case I bought them in, a nice high school kid employed by Fred's saw my predicament and offered to count my bottles and give me a ticket for the refund. That was very nice of her.
this is all way too complicated. we texans have efficientized this process. we put all of our stuff in one big (it is texas) bin. a few times a week a big (again big. as required by texas state law) truck picks up the bin and empties it. the truck transports it to mother nature's recycling bin that we here call a "landfill." she them slowly takes what she needs as she needs it.
Only 5 cents !! We have 5c on beer bottles and cans, 20c on liquor and wine bottles. And technically its now an offence to put a liquor, wine or beer bottle in with your regular plastic and glass recycling. Of course, we now have an army of 'pickers' who go through the recycling to see if they can find refundable bottles and they drag them to the store for the money. But at least we deal with people who count them and pay you, not machines
We have recycling centres that process cans, bottles and paper.
We do not get paid for this.
The major problem here is that lots of people get in their car to drive to the recycling centre to put in a couple of bottles.
The fuel burnt far outweighs any benefit from the recycling.
Our household recycling cans and bottles have to be washed clean before handing in.
Even when there is a massive water shortage and the government is begging us to save precious water we still have to wash our rubbish clean.
A large percentage of this clean rubbish is put into landfill sites as the government is unable to process it all.
