I brought in my first round of recycling over the weekend and I ended up making so much money that the recycling center people suggested I get an armored guard to follow me home in case someone tried to car jack me. In fact they suggested I go straight to the bank because a person should really not walk around carrying that much cash. So I did that and when me and the armored guard showed up at the bank, the tellers were so overwhelmed with how much cash I had, they all quit because none of them could count high enough to count my mad stacks of Benjamins.
Or, I took my little bag of recycling to the SMaRT station and waited in line behind a guy that had a whole pickup truck's bed full of recycling. Once he was all weighed and given a receipt, I walked up to have mine weighed. The woman working the scale was confused about why I was bringing in such a small quantity and at first suggested I just toss them in the bins. I made it clear that I wanted my puny bag weighed and she did it, chuckling under her breath the whole time. In my defense, my bag was puny because I only brought the recycling from home, I didn't have mine or jparks' work recycling. And because I don't work in a restaurant that allows me to keep all the recycling the customers create.
I ended up with under 5lbs of recycling and when you have that little then you don't have to cash out that same day. You get a receipt that you can cash in later when you have enough to at least get a dollar bill and not a handful of change.
Later this week I'm going to bring in the rest of the recycling I have. Maybe then I'll have my first dollar saved towards Blogher 2007. Of course, at this rate it might be more like Blogher 2008 before I have enough money saved.
You need to move to Oregon.
ReplyDeleteIn Oregon (like California) when you buy something that comes in a recyclable container, they take a $.05 deposit.
In California, there's pretty much no way to get that back. As you just discovered, you get to haul your loads of Aluminum and Plastic to some person who gives you the scrap price.
In Oregon, it's much simpler: if they sell it to you, they have to take the can/bottle back, and give you your deposit. You heard me: you can take your cans right back to Fred Meyer, or Safeway, or the corner grocery store, and hand them over for that same nickel you gave them when you made your purchase. The larger stores usually have automated can crushing machines that you dump your cans into, get a receipt, and can exchange for cash.
I honestly don't know how California gets away with taking your CRV money and never giving it back.
When I was a kid I remember my mom taking the 7UP glass bottles back to Jewel for the deposit.
ReplyDeleteIn Berlin, some stores would only take back bottles that they actually sold, and some (mainly the convenience stores/Internet cafes) would give you some smaller amount than the actually grocery store.