It doesn't make sense that the rate is the same as it was in 1972. 5 cents back then was worth much more than it is now. It should be at least a quarter.

So when I buy a 12 pack of coke it adds 3 dollars on? Have you seen how much they sell a 12 pack of coke for lately.

You'd get it back when you return the cans. It would be like paying 5 cents a can in 1972, accounting for inflation.

😂 Companies can’t have this happen. Then people would eventually realize that they’ve been getting fucked for years now with wages not going up as much as everything else has around them all these years.

I don’t return mine. I just crush them and put them in the recycle bin. The bottle redemption was created before we started recycling

It's not like this kind of work is going to attract any "cream of the crop" employees. If you can stand, you're basically qualified. $15/hour seems generous. I'd hardly call it a "dying trade", surely not like valuable plumbers or electricians who actually have to go through some serious training and apprenticeship before they can be certified.

Sorry, not sorry.

5 cents per can when the redemption act was passed in 1972 would be 36 cents today. Source. (Good god, it was 34 cents when I checked this stat nine months ago.)

Could you imagine redeeming two 12-packs worth of empties and having enough money to get yourself a small lunch? That's what it was like when the act was passed.

This kind of stuff needs to be indexed to inflation. It pains me that it never is. How hard would it be to add a clause to the bill stating that the redemption values printed on cans shall increase each year (or every 5 years, or whatever) at the rate of inflation over the same time frame, rounded down (or up) to the nearest cent.

It would be so easy. Just raise the redemption price and include an inflation-indexing clause and this would be future-proofed.

[deleted]

We have mandated recycling, so cans and bottles should just go into the blue bin. Then the revenue from the valuable recycled products could be used by the solid waste districts to reduce their costs and expand recycling and composting efforts.

Putting all recycling in the blue bin would eliminate all the costs of spent time, gas and CO2 associated with returning cans to a separate location to get $3.

This will never happen though because the legislature has “claimed” all the nickels not returned and dedicated the spending of that “revenue” to other environmental needs.

So we’re stuck with an antiquated system that wastes resources and costs all Vermonters a ton of time, cash and CO2 emissions just so we can sustain the progressively failing status quo.

That sounds about right for Vermont. smh

The refund is supposed to be an incentive to have people return their empties. That would certainly provide an incentive (and maybe have people drink less soda).

Unfortunately, this would have the effect of raising a twelve pack of seltzer, soda, or beer by the equivalent amount. Remember that the amount redeemed is prepaid at the time of purchase.

Yes, and it had the same effect when the law was implemented in 1972. Unfortunately it wasn't indexed to inflation back then, but better late than never.

We should just remove the redemption deposit.

Vermoters already recycle. Without the deposit they'll just put cans on the recycling.

It made sense when recycling wasn't really that big of a thing. But now days most people will recycle.

I did this work back in the early 90's when I was 15 for $5 an hour...

What do people expect working as a "bottle boy?"

Clearly they expect to be paid a living wage, and probably have paid vacation with cheap health insurance. After all, "bottle boy" is no longer something you hire high school kids for. It's a full-blown trade and career, don't you know. Even then, it's not like the quality of employee would dramatically increase.

EDIT: Even though the full-time position includes paid vacation and paid sick leave, after the 1st year, apparently it's too much to expect anyone to be able or willing to work that long.

The most arbitrary redemption center I've ever been to. The stuff that was rejected was bizarre, and the amount I got back didn't make any sense to me either.

I put stuff in the recycling bin now rather than deal with the Hartford Redemption center/ transfer station. Once was enough.

[deleted]

Might help with litter too. Growing up in the 80s in VT, we were constantly collecting cans around town, from river banks, etc, to cash in so we could buy comics and candy at the locally owned drug store.

I've talked to MULTIPLE employees at this location.

They are all very vocal about the fact that their employer is very abusive, and not at all a good boss to work for. One of those "Employees are lazy, nobody wants to work" type of people.

Just as an aside. There's a reason why they struggle to keep employees.

As someone that takes their cans to the redemption center because it's been a routine for ages now, do people generally just put their redeemables out on the street to be picked up? Do they not get the redemption this way?

The fact that you're trying to "ironically own" people for wanting a living wage is both hilariously disgusting, and wildly pathetic.

"Haha look at those losers trying to pay their heating bill."

As someone who drinks a few more cans than he should I'm not seeing the downside here.

Yes, by assuming they can or should be able to live decently off working at a redemption center. Who'd have thought?

I used to work with someone that would just recycle and not bother redeeming it. I can see this habit change, however, if it was 35 cents vs 5 cents.

You get all that money back though when you return the cans.

Per the article: The full-time position at Hartford Redemption pays $15 an hour and after one year of employment includes one week of paid vacation, paid federal holidays and paid sick time, Trombley said. Part-time employees make minimum wage, which in Vermont is $13.18 an hour.

Also per the article: But in recent months, the center has struggled to maintain a full-time employee. Trombley had to fire one employee for stealing from the cash register, he said. Another hire showed up for only two days. More recently, “a couple of weeks ago,” Trombley found a Hartford center employee “slumped over inside his car” from what appeared to be a state of intoxication.

So the issue is finding people to work who aren't thieves or no-loads, for a job that pays $15/hour. Maybe someone could make more money at a place like McDonalds, but do you think an employee who acts like what Trombley describes in the article is going to last any longer at a moderately higher paying job, where there's probably more responsibility? There are people who want to work and those who don't.

Now I wonder, why I don't feel any sympathy or empathy for people who, as you say, just want to pay their heating bill, yet they steal from work, show up hammered, or otherwise drugged-up.

Casella in VT has been doing zero sort recycling for ages around burlington. Everything...one can.

That's always half a sentence too

"Nobody wants to work" for someone who abuses their employees for dirt pay.

Vermonters aren't redeeming/recycling at a higher rate than places without deposits and recycling is strong here for things without deposits so the program is past its usefulness and should probably just go away.

For now I just consider every nickel a donation and my.cans and bottles go in the blue bin with everything else. Unredeemed deposits are sent to the state's Clean Water Fund. It's less than $1 per week out of my pocket.

10 years ago living in Burlington with a house full of people into drinking. We would have massive bags of cans and bottles for redemption. It would net us like $9. Wasn't worth it then and that was before the economy was absolutely fucked.

It’s not worth my time to bring our cans in for the return. We put them in a separate can beside our recycling bin for our trash hauler, who takes the returnables in for himself.

Look at the lobbyists that represents coke and Pepsi for the reason redemption value haven't increased

That's literally the point, to get people to return the empties to get their money back.

Dying trade? The place probably pays an unlivable wage

If a job can't afford to pay people a living wage, the job shouldn't exist.

I'll post to you the same thing I posted elsewhere in this topic.

>I've talked to MULTIPLE employees at this location.

>They are all very vocal about the fact that their employer is very abusive, and not at all a good boss to work for. One of those "Employees are lazy, nobody wants to work" type of people.

>Just as an aside. There's a reason why they struggle to keep employees.

If you're well known in the area for being abusive to your employees and don't pay properly, you're going to continually get lackluster employees. Pay more and you can pick whomever you want.

Some jobs are simply not worth $18-20/hour. In fact, tasks like this, at the redemption center, are probably perfect candidates for being automated. Take the person out almost entirely. Then you can free up these employees to pursue the real, meaningful work they were destined for.

If a job can't afford to pay people a living wage, the job shouldn't exist.

THIS

Well maybe you're right! But so far, those jobs haven't been automated, so they damn well better make sure to pay people well.

Raise it to $100 per can, doesn't matter to me, I buy in New Hampshire where I don't have to deal with the hassle

> Putting all recycling in the blue bin would eliminate all the costs of spent time, gas and CO2 associated with returning cans to a separate location to get $3.

And then the distributors have to drive around to all the redemption centers and collect their empty cans. God knows where they go after that.

Deposit/redemption is a great program for hard to recycle materials. Aluminum cans are one of the easiest materials to collect, separate, and recycle. Glass is another story. If we could collect ALL glass beverage containers and separate them by color, it would be a huge win for the redemption system.

This is definitely true for the easy to recycle materials. However, a redemption program is ideal for collecting clear glass bottles and other materials that lose value when they are co-mingled at the curb/blue bin.

Redemption prices need to go up. It's been a nickel since it's original inception, and that's just not worth it for a lot of people to even sort out their cans. I think it should go up to at least a quarter.

You know, I like the index to inflation, but I think we should round it down to the nearest 10 cents. Keeps it from changing too often since a lot of these places are run manually and that would give people time to adjust. Just my 10 cents

Yeah, and look at that after one year. You want to work a full year without sick time or vacation time? Then you go ahead and take that job

I don't have too many empties so I just throw them in the recycling

You can take time if you're sick or want a vacation, just not paid. Boo fucking hoo that a bottom of the barrel job doesn't have full benefits from day 1.

This job is not worth $18-20/hour. Maybe that sucks, but that's reality. I don't give a shit if this redemption center can't afford to pay people more. Maybe they shouldn't be open anymore. Great. That just means one or two fewer jobs out there for people who have basically no experience or qualifications or qualities

If a job. Cannot afford to pay people. A living wage. The job shouldn't exist.

It sounds like we might be agreeing on that?

I forgot, my bills stop existing when I get sick! Thanks for the reminder. It's wild that every other industrial nation can provide guaranteed vacation, sick and parental leave yet we can't here in the USA.

No. The redemption program costs unnecessary time, money and CO2. Put the glass in the bin and it can be sorted at the recycling facility like all the other items.
Additionally, the value of recycled glass, even clear glass is very low.

It only gets crushed into mixed glass in VT and never gets recycled back into glass items. The only valuable glass to glass recycling programs keep colors separate