10-03-2006, 09:46 PM
(This post was last modified: 10-03-2006, 09:52 PM by Zarathustra.)
My parents recently moved up to Michigan, and I find myself driving up every now and then to say hi, go out to dinner, hit the lake, etc. They're in New Buffalo which is just barely over the southern border and thus a pretty quick drive for me.
What's recently occurred to me is that pop bottles with a deposit could all be turned in on any of my trips up for cash. I didn't think much of the prospect until I looked at a 500ml Mountain Dew bottle I had just finished drinking. As I was moving, my dad had stopped by with a case to help fill the afore-empty fridge (what a guy) :lol:. The bottle had a 10-cent deposit on it, and he had paid 10 dollars for the case.
24-pack : $10
Deposit per bottle: 10 cents
Cash value: $2.40
Now, a 24% rebate on the Mountain Dew I've bought is pretty enticing, and unlike the logistical nightmare of the Seinfeld episode where Newman and Kramer try to pull off the profit-via-bottles, it wouldn't cost me anything noticeable. I'm already making the trip so it'd be whatever pittance of gas is spent for the extra weight in the car.
So that's settled. I could just toss pop bottles into a big garbage bag and, once I had a good stock, drop them off at the local grocery story up by the 'rents for a bit of cash back. Now I hit a snag...
Some bottles don't list any deposit.
As someone who grew up in Illinois where a deposit has never been an issue, I never really paid attention to this. But now I see that 2-litre bottles, 20-oz, and other sizes in plastic don't seem to have any listed deposit value. Is there a standard for these items, or are they truly not part of the system?
Just hoping someone has some insight into this. I'd like to make the whole deposit operation work! *grins*
What's recently occurred to me is that pop bottles with a deposit could all be turned in on any of my trips up for cash. I didn't think much of the prospect until I looked at a 500ml Mountain Dew bottle I had just finished drinking. As I was moving, my dad had stopped by with a case to help fill the afore-empty fridge (what a guy) :lol:. The bottle had a 10-cent deposit on it, and he had paid 10 dollars for the case.
24-pack : $10
Deposit per bottle: 10 cents
Cash value: $2.40
Now, a 24% rebate on the Mountain Dew I've bought is pretty enticing, and unlike the logistical nightmare of the Seinfeld episode where Newman and Kramer try to pull off the profit-via-bottles, it wouldn't cost me anything noticeable. I'm already making the trip so it'd be whatever pittance of gas is spent for the extra weight in the car.
So that's settled. I could just toss pop bottles into a big garbage bag and, once I had a good stock, drop them off at the local grocery story up by the 'rents for a bit of cash back. Now I hit a snag...
Some bottles don't list any deposit.
As someone who grew up in Illinois where a deposit has never been an issue, I never really paid attention to this. But now I see that 2-litre bottles, 20-oz, and other sizes in plastic don't seem to have any listed deposit value. Is there a standard for these items, or are they truly not part of the system?
Just hoping someone has some insight into this. I'd like to make the whole deposit operation work! *grins*
See you in Town,
-Z
-Z