General Cycling Discussion - Raise the price of glass

5 & 10 cents isn't enough! The deposit on glass bottles, and there needs to be a deposit on ALL glass containers everywhere, needs to be at least 2 bits, maybe four, heck with it make it a dollar.

Your health and tires are being placed at risk by busted glass on your ride and are worth far more than a plug nickel or one thin dime.

I've always wanted to live in Michigan so I could get the good bottle deposit returns.

Problem is that glass is made from sand which is so plentiful it's hardly worth recycling.

Since the late seventies South Aus has had 5¢ deposit on beer bottles, and later, some plastic bottles. Wine bottles have no deposit, neither do fruit juice bottles or milk cartons. I guess the theory is that teenage boys don't drink, wine, juice, or milk, just beer.

I think we are the only state with 5¢ deposit.

CHEERS.

Mark

It sure is great up here....:D ;)

maybe...but you get charged the deposit when you buy the cans anyway so what's the difference right? Or is my logic backwards. Now if you are living in another state, and take your cans back to Michigan...that's another story :p

But I wouldn't do anything like that.

Here in Denmark all glass is recycled, and I mean all glass, including glass containers for salad dressing, ketchup bottles,the whole works! You even have to wash them out before recycling them. That is tough.
You do get a good payment for your beer bottles though with one case (30 bottles) bringing in 50 dkr, that is $ 7 US. That brings the avarege price for three cases (90 beers!) down to about 100 dkr. Now that is cheap for Europe!!

Let's not forget the distinction between recycle and reuse. The latter is much more environmentally friendly, and I suspect that this is what Poululla means about Denmark.

In Germany, you pay a "deposit" on a lot of things that come in glass bottles (mineral water, beer, yogurt), you get your 15 or 8 Eurocent back when you return the bottle. The bottles are then "re-used" not recycled. The bottles are standardized (all mineral water bottles are the same, all beer bottles are the same, etc.). The companies just put their own labels on them.

You still find broken bottles around, but I expect that the return rate is pretty substantial.

Deposit systems have a further benefit. A great way to avoid inheritance tax would be to amass a huge quantity of deposit bottles before you die. Then your kids can return them an get their full refund. :p

Cheers,
Jamie

An interesting idea on the inheritance tax.

So to leave €1m (or $1m, they have the same value) to my children (if I had any), which would be enough to buy a 4 bed house where I live.

I would need to leave them about 10m empty bottles, which if they could return at an average of 10c to the bottle (excluding transport to Germany)

At 216 bottles to the square meter this would mean I would require 46,296 sqM of storage space, or a plot of land 215x215 meters, which in London would be large enough for 154 terraced houses on standard 300 sqm plots

Then there is the outlay for the bottles (beer I think sounds good) at say €2 per bottle, so I have to drink 5,000,000 bottles of beer and buy 154 houses giving a total outlay of €159,000,000 ..........

naaaah it's not going to work, it would take me months to drink that amount, and even longer to burn off that beer belly on my bike

Thread, I knew where you were going with this.

What an understatement. If motorists' tires were affected like mine are from glass, things would be a lot different, you bet.

Originally posted by LittleBigMan
Thread, I knew where you were going with this.

What an understatement. If motorists' tires were affected like mine are from glass, things would be a lot different, you bet.

It helps to avoid riding in glass infested streets.

Bet your bottom dollar on that LBM. With the price of decent bike tires being equal to car tires in many cases the damage done by broken glass can be quite frustrating.

The glass is everywhere Klein - roads, trails, parking lots you name it. Need to hit Joe Sixpack in the pocket book, if throwing the bottle out cost him more than the beverage that came in it he'll grow out of the juvenile need to break glass and hold onto the bottle.

poululla, are higher deposits and mandatory recycling keeping the streets of Denmark relatively glass free? Can you ride without having to choose between veering into traffic to dodge glass or chancing a flat?

I wonder if the League of American Bicyclists has anything going on this? hmmmm....

Like those deadsh!ts around here who have been starting bushfires during the drought, the same ones are smashing glass bottles because they think it's "really kewl, man!". Knob heads. I say, fine them $1,000 a go. Then see how many of them do it.

The Adelaide city council has a $315AUD fine for littering, it was introduced to stop smokers from dropping their buts (cigarette :D) in the street, the only problem is that it is not enforced. Regardless of bottle litter, the majority of glass I see is from car accidents, as it gets pushed to the bike lane by passing cars.

CHEERS.

Mark