"Ed Pawlowski" wrote:
> "Lou Decruss" wrote:
>>
>> Chicago did that tax with bottled water some time back. They didn't
>> make what they thought and did nothing for the environment. Illinois
>> has no deposits on anything. Pretty sad.
>
>
> What is sad is the fact that people are just not interested in recycling.
> It is not hard to do and the deposit should have nothing to do with it.
> Amazing how many people just toss the bottles anyway, even with a deposit.
>
Very few toss deposit containers compared with when there is no deposit...
and there are many people who will bend down for those discarded nickles,
myself included, I pick up some by the road in front of my property, but not
many... and I always check carefully before I mow... most of the litter I
find has no deposit, mostly fast food packaging.... fast food joints should
be heavily taxed (100%) for the waste of resources and destruction to the
environment their products cause... and who cares if no one buys that crap
at twice the price, all they sell is garbage, pig slop is more nutritious
and healthful.... it's all a glitzy mirage of neon and packaging, it's NOT
food, it's filler for the obeasties. When I was a kid I collected deposit
bottles, all kids did; 2¢ for small bottles and 5¢ for large bottles, 3¢ for
milk bottles... back then bottles were reusable, many times... caps were
steel and cork... every kid collected bottle caps for decorating home made
carts and scooters and to use as game pieces, bottle caps had intrinsic
value, very few were found flattened on roadways or embedded in the
macadam... places that sold bottled beverages had openers with a container
below to catch the caps, very few caps became litter. And most major
beverage companys delivered to the home and would pick up the empties,
resulting in even fewer discards. When I delivered groceries tips were
often the empty deposit bottles. In those days there was zero littering of
bottles... of course back then there were no metal cans or plastic (and no
plastic credit cards either, hardly anyone was in debt). Then in one fell
swoop NY did away with deposit containers and the streets instantly became
dangerously filthy with broken glass, metal, and plastic containers... had
to wear shoes at the beach lest you slice your feet to ribbons... ambulances
streaking across the boardwalks to rescue seriously cut beach goers was
common (life guards rescued far more with bottle gashes than troubled
swimmers). As soon as the deposit law was put into effect container
littering became very minimal. I wish they would put a deposit on bottled
water, booze bottles, and wine coolers, those are the containers that I see
most often tossed on the roadside (plenty of alcoholic drivers choose pints
and half pints, much easier to conceal), and no one goes about retrieving
them because without a deposit there is no incentive... and only imbeciles
buy bottled water... in the US it's less pure than what comes from the tap,
and damn, it costs more than gasoline. And I wish they would design a
different closure than those screw on caps for plastic bottles like they did
with aluminum pulltabs, I see those caps littered all over because they
typically don't get included when returning deposit bottles to those
machines. There are lots of plastic caps on non deposit containers too,
juice and milk containers are biggies.... and the juice container has that
silly plastic inner pull tab, and milk containers that stupid plastic
strip.... it would be pretty simple to design a closure that incorporates a
retaining link I mostly object to all those plastic contraptions because
they present a deadly risk to wildlife... and here we are concerned about
choking hazards with children's toys yet there are all those small plastic
caps, strips, and and so-called "safety" seals.