I do believe in recycling, at least somewhat, so I do not throw away any glass or plastic bottles or aluminum cans. In theory, when the pile gets big enough I take it to the recycle bin in the basement. But the recycle bin is often near full and so I need go down and check if there is room before I actually bring anything down there. And I'm lazy so I don't like taking 2 trips and so the pile grows, and the bigger it grows the lazier I become. I don't usually bother with the 5¢ deposit on a lot of the bottles, but recently I let the pile (of mostly beer bottles) get so big that it seemed like it might be worth getting some money out of it. Seemed like it would be worth it but it was a very bad idea.


First of all, I think the deposit should grow with the cost of the drinks if they want it to mean anything. A 20oz coke these days is probably double what it was 15 years ago but the deposit is the same. Even what seems like a huge amount of bottle, in terms of space in my kitchen and effort to remove (even just to recycle), never amounts to more than a few dollars, one of the reasons it isn't usually (and still shouldn't have been this time) worth redeeming for all the effort that it would take me. Secondly, I've had bad redemption experiences before, so I should have known better.

I know the liquor store will only redeem things they sell so I don't even bother with all the plastic bottles (soda, gatorade, and water) which I recycle. I take 100 bottles (should be $5) in cardboard boxes in my car to the liquor store. The redemption center is a small area with a bunch of machines attached to but separated from the store itself.

I carry 3 cases in, only to be told by two creepy guys, one an older Chinese man who doesn't speak English, that there's no deposit on the hard cider that is 2 of the 3 cases I'm holding. They were pretty rude and condescending too. I go back outside with all 3 to resort and bring in a load that I can return and the Chinese guy tries to stop me because the 3rd case was redeemable and he didn't understand I wasn't actually leaving. 28 bottles were cider I'll have to drive home and recycle, so I'm down to 72 redeemable bottles. I go back in with 30 bottles and feed them into one of the machines. Since it reads the barcode to decide if it is a bottle that is redeemable, one fails due to a peeled off label (a habit of mine). I leave the machine to go get the rest of the bottles. 3 more with peeled labels leaves me with 68. I carry in the remaining 39.

The machine I had been using had timed out and spit out the receipt for $1.45 for 29 bottles I had already returned. I took it and then the Chinese man comes over and starts motioning for me to give him the receipt. He was using machines all over the places and had shopping carts full of cans and bottles (he was probably homeless or something) so he probably thought I had taken his receipt. I try to tell him that it is not his, it is mine, the amount matches what I had deposited in that machine which I had been using which still had my empty cases in front of it. He didn't understand and I was confused by his unceasing Chinese babbling. I decide to ignore him and feed the rest of my bottles. The Chinese guy stands there trying to get the first receipt from me the entire time. Another (possibly homeless) guy comes in that seems to know the Chinese man and I ask him if he has any idea what the Chinese guy is trying to tell me. He tells me that the Chinese man is in there all the time and is fair so I should give him the receipt, it must be his. Well, I know that it is not and it is mine, so I take both and leave. I'm not going to be extorted by a couple homeless guys.

While I'm putting the empty boxes and labelless bottles back in the car, the Chinese guy and some other guy (who may or may not have worked there) come out and ask me if I took his receipt. I tell him that I didn't, which they don't seem to believe. They threaten that they can find out if I'm telling the truth because there are surveillance cameras. I tell them that's fine because I know I'm right and they are free to see for themselves. I try to explain how I had been using that machine and the amount on the receipt matches the number of bottles I fed in which matches the amount of slots in the boxes I was holding. One of them asks me how much it was. I already knew that it was ridiculous that I was arguing with a homeless guy over $1.50, but I couldn't bare to say it out loud. I almost gave in and gave him both of the receipts just to end my hassle. He could probably use the money a lot more than me and I probably would have been happy to give it to a homeless person, but not the way they were treating me. Instead, I tear up both of the receipts in front of them and said "now no one gets it."

I drove home and recycle the rest of the bottles and the cardboard boxes. I actually needed to buy something there, but didn't want to leave my car after that scene with those crazy people still around. The point is that I learned my lesson: just recycle everything because the few dollars is never worth it.