Michigans ten cent deposit

[hlbly]

Texas sucks on both recycling and water rentention.

For example, San Antonio is the 7th largest city in america yet has no mandatory recycling, has awkward and inconvenient landfill policies and has very little (extra, man-made) infrastructure to capture runoff from the rain.

Voluntary recycling doesn't work unless it's totally convenient to the consumer. In the above landfill policy matter, people have to *pay* to drop off a load at the landfill. And the landfill is fairly complex in what goes where. Just awkward and inconvenient.

Someone makes money off of recycling -  just not enough incentive here in Texas yet, I guess.

Having said that, I'm a wannabe recycler who wants it as easy and convenient as possible; but since it isn;t, I don't.  My bad...

Not true. Convenience is not the way to get people to recycle voluntarily. Make it worthwhile monetarily. Where I live it is not mandated but it saves a fair amount of coin to do it. Recycle and yard waste pick up is free. Garbage is fairly expensive.  A little effort saves me about $35.00 a month. Take care of your pennies and your dollars will take care of themselves.

[mbailey]

Where i live in Pennsylvania we are all voluntary recycling....and no deposit on cans.

Tell u the truth....if we had that 10cent deposit on cans...u can bet id be buying a trashcan specifically for nothing but cans to turn in......10cans is a buck......Heck,after having built my bar......and the way it attracts my friends and family...id retire after a month or 2  

In Michigan is it cans and bottles?  If it is bottles...is it only beer bottles or can you turn in say....a spagetti sauce jar and get10cents?


Regardless....if it has cleaned things up......Wtg Michigan.....Id gladly pay an additonal 2.40 per case of beer.....knowing id get it back when i turned in the cans

[eagl]

Not true. Convenience is not the way to get people to recycle voluntarily. Make it worthwhile monetarily. Where I live it is not mandated but it saves a fair amount of coin to do it. Recycle and yard waste pick up is free. Garbage is fairly expensive.  A little effort saves me about $35.00 a month. Take care of your pennies and your dollars will take care of themselves.

Depends on the person.  You'd have to give me about $200 per trip to the dump to make it worth my time, and then if it makes a mess in my car that I have to clean up then I'm just as likely to throw it in the trash.  Convenience is the biggest consideration I have when recycling.  I know many people aren't in my position, but I'm far more in need of more minutes in my day than I am in need of money, and I've been like that since I entered the USAF academy back in 1990.  I also don't watch much TV anymore and quit playing computer games shortly after my first son was born.  If it isn't easy to do, anything optional just doesn't get done because I have more important things to do.

So don't discount the importance of a recycling effort being convenient.  It's a huge consideration for many people.

[DubiousKB]

Im looking more towards a compost bin just for the soil it will produce, havent really found one I like yet

Take a standard rain barrel (blue plastic) and drill holes all through the circumference of the drum. Make sure the holes are less than 1/2 inch so they don't release the raw material, rather than the compost iteself...

It works good because all you need to do is rig up a small spit so that you can simply roll the barrel a few turns every week to accelerate the composting process. The best part; the usable soil just falls out and can be scooped up and applied where needed.

[RotBaron]

As for the FoxNews comment:

Explain who they are telling that they need to go to work? Homeless watch TV now?  Want to give examples of what you state?

You mean with the lowest labor participation rate in US existence and with our current system of reporting unemployment that people don't need to have a job to pay for themselves anymore?    

~350K were figured out of the employed counting system, and 78K jobs were created in Dec, yet the unemployment rate went down.    Fuzzy, fuzzy system. Collectively we are all accountable for accepting this garbage system.  


Regarding recycling, Phoenix has been doing a fairly good job for ~twenty years (to my recollection) we've had a full sized, can with a lid that is specifically for paper products, plastics, metals and almost anything that isn't yard or food waste. I'm not sure how organic material recycling makes any sense; long term it doesn't clog up in a landfill.  We have a once a month landfill/dump dropoff for "free" bring your water bill, and a quarterly bulk curbside garbage pickup for anything less than ~80lbs (per item) and not longer than 16', iirc.

As the OP titled the thread, you realize you are getting your money back, as it is a deposit, right? If you look on your receipt in California, there is a specific line (below the taxes) that says the amount you paid in deposit for your plastic bottles and glass. To my knowledge, the deposit is mostly on beverages. So in California, there would not be a refund on a Prego bottle. This is actually a pretty good system however, and I see most of the people I know throwing a lot in the garbage that could be recycled here. Oddly enough, some of them claim to be environmentally minded...Also, my friends in CA toss a lot of things in garbage or recycling that they paid a deposit on and don't possess the inclination to get their money back.

When I lived in Ft. Collins, CO, they had the open lid recycling tub    windy days...

[eagl]

In Wichita Falls TX, they collected organics and composted it.  I'm not 100% sure how the system worked, but I *think* the city used the compost for city projects, and twice a year people who lived in the city could go to the composting facility and haul off as much as they wanted for their own uses.  I always seemed to forget to start checking the city website because I never found out what day it was until the day AFTER my neighbors had made their compost trip and spread a trailer-full on their lawns once or twice a year.

[NatCigg]

michigans program covers soda, beer, wine coolers, and carbonated water only.  There was talk of putting a deposit on water bottles and juice containers but that has yet to happen.

While a scavenger has no problem scrubbing thru a salamanderly tree, down a slope, thru the mud to get a beer can; if it is a gatorade bottle it will be left as pollution.

The value of the can is ingrained into our minds. people save their cans in a bag or pile somewhere, and when they have enough, they take them back.

When i lived in oregon (5 cent deposit), not many took back their cans back. It simply was not worth the effort, cans would go in the recycle bin and that was that.  In this case the deposit program has ended up being more of a tax then a functional program.  Albeit, im sure they still have scavengers that will pick up the litter. yet the culture is more of a moral obligation to recycle versus being driven by a monetary value.

[hlbly]

Depends on the person.  You'd have to give me about $200 per trip to the dump to make it worth my time, and then if it makes a mess in my car that I have to clean up then I'm just as likely to throw it in the trash.  Convenience is the biggest consideration I have when recycling.  I know many people aren't in my position, but I'm far more in need of more minutes in my day than I am in need of money, and I've been like that since I entered the USAF academy back in 1990.  I also don't watch much TV anymore and quit playing computer games shortly after my first son was born.  If it isn't easy to do, anything optional just doesn't get done because I have more important things to do.

So don't discount the importance of a recycling effort being convenient.  It's a huge consideration for many people.

The effort required is putting it in one container or the other. Trash cans are same for garbage as recycle outside. Inside my garbage can is located next to my recycle box's. My garbage service is relatively spendy. My recycle service is free. I know $30.00 is not much. How ever my debt stands at $30,000.00 mortgage on a $120,000.00 home and $4,000 on a car worth 7,000ish wholesale. That and what I owe on my daughters student loans is all I owe.  I had a kid late in life and was unprepared for it. She deserves the same shot at success I gave her sister. Her older sister recently graduated from Oregon State with less than 8,000.00 in loan debt.I will not see her loaded with debt when she graduates either. As a single father even though I am retired time is a valuable commodity to me as well. A three y.o. is a handful.  Just curious did you go to the Academy with a guy named Tim Parker? Would have been in last or second to last year in 90 I think.

[spammer]

Just weighed a beer can, .5 oz. 32 beer cans per pound, that would be $3.20 per LB of beer cans refunded. The going scrap value is 50 cents a pound. The State loses $2.70 per LB.

Michigan must have a gundle of money to pay for this boondoggle.

Detroit broke and seeking bankruptcy? Wonder why?

Just thinking I might have got this wrong. If Michigan makes the suppliers add $0.10 to the cost of their products sold in Alum cans for deposit refunds? If my math is correct, scrap value is .015 cent per can, netting the State .085 cents per can on deposit, or .10 cents per can if your lazy.

I feel good about this, I'm saving the planet!

LOL.............30 rack of bud nets the state $2.55 or, $3.00 per rack if you are like me.

Once again the Gov. grows and the people lose.............but we're saving the planet.

[Shamus]

Just weighed a beer can, .5 oz. 32 beer cans per pound, that would be $3.20 per LB of beer cans refunded. The going scrap value is 50 cents a pound. The State loses $2.70 per LB.

Michigan must have a gundle of money to pay for this boondoggle.

Detroit broke and seeking bankruptcy? Wonder why?

Just thinking I might have got this wrong. If Michigan makes the suppliers add $0.10 to the cost of their products sold in Alum cans for deposit refunds? If my math is correct, scrap value is .015 cent per can, netting the State .085 cents per can on deposit, or .10 cents per can if your lazy.

I feel good about this, I'm saving the planet!

LOL.............30 rack of bud nets the state $2.55 or, $3.00 per rack if you are like me.

Once again the Gov. grows and the people lose.............but we're saving the planet.

Ya you got it wrong spammer. The suppliers charge a 10 cent deposit at point of sale and refund that dime when the can is returned. The state actually makes money because the state gets the deposits on any un-returned bottles and cans. 

[spammer]

That would be the retailers adding the ten cents at the point of sale...........point being, once again the consumers foot the bill to fund an ever growing Gov.

[GScholz]

We've had a deposit system on bottles and cans since 1902. I'm surprised it hasn't caught on sooner over on your side of the pond.

[GScholz]

Spammer, if everyone returned the cans/bottles like they should instead of throwing it in the waste, or even worse, in nature, the state would not earn a dime. Seeing how the state has to clean up after those who litter it is a fair way of collecting tax to fund those cleanup efforts.

[GScholz]

Btw. in my country the deposit scheme is not state controlled, but rather a private venture that grew from the soft drink and brewery industry, so it's more of a buy-back scheme than a tax deposit scheme.

[Widewing]

We recycle just about everything here. Every Wednesday is recycle pick-up day. Paper, cardboard, metal cans and plastic. Town provides a 30 gallon can with lid. Not big enough for us, so we hit the Walmart and bought a larger trash can. The town isn't picky about what container you use. We have a 5 cent deposit on soft drink and beer containers. I put these out in plastic trash bags. There are a few older folks in the neighborhood who collect them and take them in for the deposit. A few bucks here and there helps them with their budgets.