I was amazed in Berlin the recycling program that makes it very easy to recycle cans and bottles. People made it a job to pickup and search through trash so they could recycle. A can deposit would be welcomed, but maybe I’m old and just remember crushing cans to fill up trash bags to get $7. Sure was fun to get that money as a kid.
Some places you don't get the deposit if the can is crushed, because they need to be able to read the barcode. Which is insane, because crushed cans take up a fraction of the space of whole cans and only makes the recycling process more complex.
Yeah, but collecting whole cans is inconvenient. My normal process is to crush it with my hands immediately after drinking it (top to bottom) so it doesn't take up so much room.
It’s not just that it’s easy… it’s also how much they give you per can or bottle (up to 25 cents)… it’s quite a significant amount, so you end up saving the bottles and taking them to the supermarket to get the refund.
There's a couple of grocery stores here that are recently trying out selling soap and shampoo this way. You bring your own bottle and fill it up. It makes sense and is not much extra hassle to the consumer, however I'm not sure how hard it is to scale logistics-wise.
Similar thing in Austin, TX. City banned single use plastic bags, so HEB (the largest grocer) introduced durable reusable plastic bags to purchase. Unsurprisingly, people ate the cost, treated them like single use bags, and now we have an even worse waste problem.
