Do you return empty wine bottles for deposit?

On Feb. 5 the province of Ontario introduced a bottle deposit program. If we return regular sized wine bottles we get our 20 cent deposit returned.

I know this program exists in other areas of North America and around the world, but am just wondering how many people out there actually go to the bother of schlepping their cases of empty wine bottles back to the store or some other location just for the sake of a few bucks.

As you may have guessed, I haven't bothered (yet) to return them. As they have done for many years, my empty wine bottles go into the recycling bin. Can't really see the bother is worth $2.40 to me.

How about you?

In Maine, where we lived until '05 everything is returnable except milk and cider. Wine and spirits are $.15 U.S. per bottle, and all else is $.05 including beer, juice, et al. If you buy and four pack of 187 ml bottles of wine that is $.60 and these are added to the cost of your purchase. So it is worthwile to save and return them or donate them to the scouts or others. Several bags of bottles and cans can amount to up to $20.

In New Hampshire we return nothing. In some communities recycling is required.

[Robin Garr]

How about you?

There's no bottle deposit law in Kentucky, although it's been an issue at the legislature off and on for many years. The soft drink and beer companies "lobby" against it.

So returning bottles is not an option, but we recycle ours - our city has curbside recycling, optional but everybody does it. I sometimes wonder what our recycling guy must think about all the wine bottles we put out.

Recycle consistently here, Bruce; our town picks up every other Wednesday. No deposit law here.

I used to take bottles to a recycling place in Glen Rock -- no money involved, just recycling.

How about you?

I sometimes wonder what our recycling guy must think about all the wine bottles we put out.

I wonder about us as well, especially since my wife is a Sunday School teacher and superintendent at her church.

Unfortunately we do not have a deposit law here in Indiana. I recycle and pay $40 annually for that.
When I lived in deposit states, I would just donate the empties to charity/local volunteer Fire Dept rather than lugging them back to the store(s).
BP

No deposit here, but eventually recycling seems to have taken hold and we wait till we have around 20 empties and take them either to a supermarket, or the car park of the local YMCA sports centre, to drop the bottles into the bottle banks.

regards

Ian

Bruce, one suggestion. I put ours in a wine boxes rather than in the recycling bin. Easier for the recycle guys to handle, and Janet thinks it looks "better".

A local fellow makes his own wine and he sometimes picks up a box or two for his own bottling.

Alberta has had recycling deposits for as long as I can remember. Even when I was a kid, I recall my parents taking their cans and bottles to a depot. It's simply part of our lifestyle here, Bruce.

Back in my scouting days, we did bottle drives as fund-raisers.

I believe the deposits are 5 cents for containers under 1 L, 10 cents for 1L and up. Beer bottles and cans are 10 cents. At $1.20 per case, it's worth it for beer.

When I was a college student who drank a lot of beer, recycling helped me through some tight spots. A few bucks could mean gas in the car.

Nowdays my wife and I leave our bottles next to the dumpster outside our building. There are a number of bottlepickers who come through our neighbourhood. These guys get up quite early and arguably work harder than most people. I look at them as providing a public service and on a good day they can make out very well. At least they're not panhandling on the streets.

No bottle deposit law here in New Mexico, and I live in a county where there is not even optional recycling available. So I take all my recycling to my workplace in the next, more enlightened, county.

When I moved here from upstate NY this was one of the worst culture shocks.

We don't have deposits on wine bottles in UK so I use the kerbside recycling collection. But when I was living in Stockholm the state monopoly bottled many of the wines locally using standard bottles which could be returned for a small cash refund. I was always intrigued by the automatic machine that you put the bottle in and which checked it was an appropriate bottle for use before coughing up a few kroner.

I am the recycle - all my friends save their empties for me to re-fill.

I am like Mike B, leave the bottles outside for the guys to pick up in their early am rounds for empties.

Haven't taken any back yet, Bruce, but that's because I need as many empties as I can get right now. My 2006 Dry Cayuga is in the garage waiting to be bottled!

I am the recycle - all my friends save their empties for me to re-fill.

LOL Howie! I like that recycle plan! Wished I lived closer so I could use the "Howie Hart Recycling System"...LOL!

I also recycle. Not sure if there is even a bottle deposit here in NJ or not.

No bottle deposit on wine in NY, so I just put on curb.

I do take back seltzer and sparkling water bottles back for the $.05 deposit. While there are "canners" that go by my office, none pass through our neighborhood- density isn't enough. So I either take in for deposit or take to office to leave for canners. Recycling through machines is more efficient than putting into the co-mingled recyling bins. If bottle law was extended to wine in NY, I'd be sure to take them in.

[David M. Bueker]

No deposit on wine bottles here, so they go in the recycle bin that gets picked up every other week.

No deposit on bottles here in Ohio. We put them in the recycle bin along with the cans, jars, and newspapers every week.

We have mandatory recycling here in Jersey, they come once every two weeks for the paper, metal, plastic and glass.