10c refund at collection depots when sold in S.A.

[LordEoin]

Just noticed this on a bottle of Punk IPA (great beer by the way, more like a Double American Pale Ale) and began wondering...
Do you think this would work here? offering a refund for your empty bottles.
24 bottles of cheap crap Miller in tesco for €20, but bring the bottles to the recycling depot and get €2.40 back from your 'bottle deposit'...

[johnrm]

We did refunds on glass bottles in Ireland years ago. Beer, Cider, Milk and soft drinks. Bottles were sold in crates collected and returned.
At some stage we decided that this was to much hassle, took up to much time and space, and attracted flies/wasps and decided that we would be better off paying a bit more and let the consumer take them to a bottle bank.
I think it's a shame that we don't have entrepreneurial kids running around picking up tin cans and bottles and getting pocket money for them too.

[Eoin]

I remember as a kid collecting deposit bottles for pocket money. In fact I even had a summer job collecting crates of them driving around in a flat bed. I think it's a great idea.

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[johnrm]

Our family business was wholesale Grocery. We used to have a 'Bottle store'.

I remember as a kid in the 70's separating mixed crates into All Lucozade, All TK, All CocaCola etc. that came in from enterprising if snot nosed feckers such as yourself, Eoin, trying to make a quick Punt 

HACCP, Health and Safety and the world gone mad will make it difficult to return to the 'old' ways but at least they do this all over Europe so the model is there and could be replicated
here.

Responsible consumers: The culture needs to be dusted down and re-established. It it high-time that this disposable society woke up.

Retail: Point of Sale Tills, unless it is a recent Irish or UK developer, all of these systems are capable of handling the charge and refund, so the cost to the retailer is training and bottle storage. HACCP

Wholesale: Many Wholesalers do this for the likes of Bulmers and Pub-size bottles. (Recently I have seen Guinnes kegs at wholesale, so this is possible also.)

Manufacturer/Bottler: Unfortunately there is an industry set up around the 'Bottle Bank' concept and we have in turn become a throwaway society. Most bottling companies have done away with bottle washing and sanitisation.

Globalisation: Compared to the 70's, there are now so many different bottles that come from all over the world, that separating and returning these for reuse might be a bit of a problem, so a certain amount is going to have to go to the Crusher.

I would welcome a campaign to re-establish glass return.

Start with Glass, but I think returns should extend to Cans and Bottle Plastic also.

...and one more thing: Was that last pint of draught beer you had from a shiny Stainless keg or a one-way PET?

[Garry]

I remember seeing vending type machines in Germany a couple of years ago in the supermarkets. You put your empty plastic bottles or cans into it and it gave you money for your deposit. Cool idea.

Not sure it would work here unless it was a private company. Every time I go to the bottle bank the bins are full. Imagine how often they would empty the bins if they were paying you for your deposit?

[johnrm]

In essence once you've consumed the contents the responsibility for processing the empty is now on someone else.

Isn't that called consumerism?

This responsibility should be shared.

[Eoin]

Did a project management course years ago given by a lad who is involved in packaging in the food industry. He said we stopped using glass bottles when plastic bottles came in simply as drinks companies could eliminate entirely the bottle return side of their business which is not profitable. In essence once you've consumed the contents the responsibility for processing the empty is now on someone else.

In Germany you get PET coke bottles in returnable format.

They're heavy and have the classic coke shape to them, but they're tough bottles comparatively.

There's really no excuse for it to be honest.

It is coming up to the point where it will again be profitable to recycle bottles, as the price of plastic increases.

[Eoin]

German pubs don't use splits bottles as a rule, it's all cornies and 2l bottles for coke and soft drinks.

[Ciderhead]

There's really no excuse for it to be honest.

It is coming up to the point where it will again be profitable to recycle bottles, as the price of plastic increases.

2 major problems with that bottle, the lid, security tag and the label are 3 different materials. Only the lid and the label are compatible.
Some of you may have noticed requirement of some councils to cut off the ring around the neck and label of your Milk bottle, the colour impacts the recycled product.

If you do want to see an example of recyled PET in ireland look closely at the ribena bottle and you may see black specs which is the outer layer, the inner in contact with the virgin is prime.

On the price front as an example of another product in 1968 the price of a ton of HDPE was Pounds 500, in todays money that is 7,350. the actual cost today is £1,100.
This has been achieved with mass scale more efficient production plants typically 5 times the size they were in the 60's, with the US now fracking this is unlikely to change in the next 20 years so its not increasing.

All of this is consumer driven and in the case of the soft drinks market the largest consumers of soft drinks in the population are the lower social strata, unfortunately this segment of the population is just interested in price and not prepared to pay extra for the added costs of recycling.
   

[Eoin]

There's really no excuse for it to be honest.

It is coming up to the point where it will again be profitable to recycle bottles, as the price of plastic increases.

2 major problems with that bottle, the lid, security tag and the label are 3 different materials. Only the lid and the label are compatible.
Some of you may have noticed requirement of some councils to cut off the ring around the neck and label of your Milk bottle, the colour impacts the recycled product.

If you do want to see an example of recyled PET in ireland look closely at the ribena bottle and you may see black specs which is the outer layer, the inner in contact with the virgin is prime.

On the price front as an example of another product in 1968 the price of a ton of HDPE was Pounds 500, in todays money that is 7,350. the actual cost today is £1,100.
This has been achieved with mass scale more efficient production plants typically 5 times the size they were in the 60's, with the US now fracking this is unlikely to change in the next 20 years so its not increasing.

All of this is consumer driven and in the case of the soft drinks market the largest consumers of soft drinks in the population are the lower social strata, unfortunately this segment of the population is just interested in price and not prepared to pay extra for the added costs of recycling.

These bottles go back in the crates and are reused for the same purpose, they are not repurposed as cloth or similar.

[Dunkel]

In the off-licence where I work we give 23 cent back on empty pint bottles of Guinness, Smithwicks and Macardles. They are collected by the delivery drivers, and we get credit from Diageo.

[pob]

I remember a friend once telling me about the automated bottle return machine at the back of Dunnes Cornelscourt, this was a good bit into last century when I he was an enterprising 10 or 11 yr old.

We He used to collect discarded bottles lying around the fields and bring them up to the back of the shop where they has this new fangle machine that you'd put a bottle on into the turntable hatch and you'd get a print out to get your 10p per bottle back from the customer services. After a few trips we he realised that somebody had left the door open to the back of the room where all the recycled bottles had been stored.

That was a wonderful IR£3 we made that summer - at a time when a pint of plain was less then a quid - they quickly copped on that then should keep the door closed.

[LordEoin]

and this is what happens back in the depot

[Ciderhead]

Jimmy, Dempsey and I did that in reverse when loading last years competition entries

[JimmyM]

Haha that does actually remind me of the old competition bottle sorting.

Those boys mustnt have went to the same manual handling course they ran in my office.