Wax-coated Cardboard & Aluminum Soapbox

[da]

Walking back from lunch at the University Plaza, elbie_at_trig & I counted about half a dozen Tim Hortons cups and at least that many pop cans.

Now, I know the Tims cups have a wax/plastic lining, so recycling probably isn't cost effective (though I seem to remember that some western municipality, perhaps Vancouver(?) found the political will to recycle them anyhow). But can anybody explain why there isn't an aluminum can deposit in Ontario?

[Concerning Tims cups: I wonder how many people realize that the year-round discount for using one's own mug is considerably higher than the 1:9 odds of winning a free coffee or doughnut during the "Roll Up the Rim" month. That is, my mug rings in at "medium" but it's 20 oz. ...so, something like 2/3 a free medium in each cup. All things considered, I'd prefer they keep their empty cup, and I'll keep my mug.]

Comments

[epi-lj.livejournal.com]

Uh, aluminum cans are recyclable by putting them in the blue box in Waterloo. I'd be surprised if there weren't some sort of public drops as well. They're all over Toronto.

[da-lj.livejournal.com]

Yes, there are, though not as ubiquetously as in Toronto. But I'm specifically asking about a deposit (say, a nickel) similar to beer cans and bottles.

http://www.bottlebill.org/geography/canada_summary.htm

[epi-lj.livejournal.com]

Ohh. I dunno. There used to be on glass bottles.

[nobodyhere.livejournal.com]

When I was in the maritimes, I found having a deposit on bottles actually made them more difficult to recycle. Most stores didn't take them back for refunds, and there weren't recycling bins in various places like there are here. After carrying a bottle around for a day trying to find somewhere to return it, I gave it to a cashier and asked them to keep the deposit.

But then I'm weird in that beer bottle deposits have no effect on me. Mostly I put beer bottles out with the blue box and someone walking by takes them for the deposit.

(hi! just wandered by from Joy's LJ.)

[da-lj.livejournal.com]

Yes! Hi! I've been meaning to wander by your j as well, but you beat me to it.

...It was at least a year, maybe two, after moving here that we learned that beer bottles have deposits. Going by our rather slow rate of consumption, that didn't faze us too much.

In NY State, most grocery-stores accept deposits; I think they're requred to by law? Not exactly sure though. There are also other places that seem to specialize in reedeming cans and other recyclables.

By this point, many groceries have machines that look just like pop machines, but they work in reverse- you feed them cans, one at a time, and they feed you dollar bills when you're done. Pretty neat stuff.

[da-lj.livejournal.com]

Ah, and now I remember one 'o the other things you mentioned about your journal- I was thinking, "ah, good cook, interesting person, I need to ask kourneyshort to friend me." Can you friend me please? :)