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  1. #26
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
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    Ventura Highway in the Sunshine
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    22,431
    Maybe she could be Trump's VP. I hear Pence is going to be out.

    Never get involved in neighborhood websites/ emails, at least not if you are a regular TGR poster. I learned quickly I can't switch of the snark.

    As to the OP, just mail back tour plastic straws that should make her happy.

    I agree it is a constitutional right for Americans to be assholes...its just too bad that so many take the opportunity...
    iscariot

  2. #27
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    Jan 2008
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    truckee
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    23,120
    My wife returns soda cans and the like for the 5 cent deposit. There's no place left in Truckee that will give you money for your cans so she takes them down to Sacramento and gets in line with all the homeless people. If it were up to me I'd leave them on the curb for a homeless person to scavenge, but I think my wife is saving up to divorce me--she should have enough money saved from the cans in about 500 years.

  3. #28
    Join Date
    Oct 2008
    Location
    valley of the heart's delight
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    2,474
    Quote Originally Posted by old goat View Post
    My wife returns soda cans and the like for the 5 cent deposit. There's no place left in Truckee that will give you money for your cans so she takes them down to Sacramento and gets in line with all the homeless people. If it were up to me I'd leave them on the curb for a homeless person to scavenge, but I think my wife is saving up to divorce me--she should have enough money saved from the cans in about 500 years.
    After gas and wear and tear, (and labor) how far is that 5c getting her? Also, to the saving the environment question, was the energy expended less than that required to smelt new aluminum? Aluminum is energy intense but I doubt it saves the environment to run a vehicle to Sacramento and back from anywhere except *maybe* Sacramento. I haven't kept up, but the aluminum in one can probably costs roughly 1c, including the energy to mine, transport, refine, and manufacture. I.e. the environmental benefit to recycling is less than 1c. (Happy to be proved wrong - one one hand, aluminum is more expensive, otoh they've figured how to make a can from less of it)

    Don't get me wrong, aluminum offers one of the best recycling returns. Driving a small amount of cans will cancel that though.
    10/01/2012 Site was upgraded to 300 baud.

  4. #29
    Join Date
    Oct 2008
    Location
    On another tangent.
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    3,855
    This thread reminds me of a cartoon from a few years ago. IIRC, it showed a map of a 20 mile (or whatever) circuitous route taken by a mother and daughter in a large SUV to deliver one aluminum can to a recycling area.

    Caption: Mother to daughter: "See dear. That's how we save the planet."
    Best regards, Terry
    (Direct Contact is best vs PMs)

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  5. #30
    Join Date
    Nov 2004
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    YetiMan
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    13,370

  6. #31
    Join Date
    Jan 2009
    Location
    Park City
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    5,013
    Used to work with a guy in Montana who threw all his empty beer cans in the back of his truck. Once it was full he would throw a tarp on there and drive to OR to get .05 each. Fill the truck, buy as much beer as he could and drive home.

    Yeah, besides being the biggest redneck ive ever met he had a problem.


    Sent from my iPhone using TGR Forums
    I rip the groomed on tele gear

  7. #32
    Join Date
    Dec 2005
    Location
    STL
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    13,294
    Your neighbor is a deranged liberal. There is no win here, even when it makes no sense.

    Have you checked out Polyass?


    Sent from my iPhone using TGR Forums

  8. #33
    Join Date
    Dec 2006
    Location
    Planning an exit
    Posts
    5,930

  9. #34
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    Jan 2008
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    truckee
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    Quote Originally Posted by detrusor View Post
    Used to work with a guy in Montana who threw all his empty beer cans in the back of his truck. Once it was full he would throw a tarp on there and drive to OR to get .05 each. Fill the truck, buy as much beer as he could and drive home.

    Yeah, besides being the biggest redneck ive ever met he had a problem.


    Sent from my iPhone using TGR Forums
    In CA you are supposed to show state ID to recycle cans, etc. I doubt anyone checks.

  10. #35
    Join Date
    Nov 2004
    Location
    YetiMan
    Posts
    13,370
    I grew up near a beach (with beach parties) and an outdoor college football field (undercarriage of the stands full of cans) in Michigan.
    The $0.10 deposit has not changed with inflation, so in 1985 each bottle/can was worth $0.24 in today's money.
    We could put in a few hours roaming around and have today's equivalent of $25-$50, money we made ourselves, unsupervised, as elementary-school kids. It was really an outstanding feature of growing up here. There were arcades near (next door, or even inside) places you could return bottles and cans....I speculate a lot of that business came directly from kids spending scavenging money. There were little stores that did reasonable business just with neighborhood kids buying comic books and baseball cards and cassette tapes and junk food. I see this guy dog-walking nowadays (for Happy Fun Ball or any mqt people, it's the guy who owned the B&J (!) ) who retired from operating a store like that....that weird little economy made that man a living he could retire from.
    Those little businesses are largely gone, and it's hard to know precisely why, but I strongly suspect that culture (that included lots of drunk driving and littering beer cans and kids who were more feral out scavening those cans for decent money) slowly died simultaneously as the value of the $0.10 deposit diminished with inflation.

    After high school, one of the hustles was putting on byob ragers at this rental house, then collect all the bottles and cans for rent money. There were a couple of older guys who were absolutely killing it...they let us drink and party there if we did the labor of handling all the bottles and cans and told girls our age about the parties. It seems creepy in hindsight, but it was such a different time and social climate. I think one of those older guys ended up marrying a girl from my high school class they met hanging around those parties. Bart O'Kavannaugh stuff.

    That $0.10 deposit (again, think of it as $0.25 in today's money) is an interesting little economic lesson...introducing this little disruption and transfer of wealth and all the little markets and situations it created. It makes me very supportive of Andrew Yang, because I imagine a UBI creating larger-scale versions of that weird little bottle-deposit economy I grew up in.

  11. #36
    Join Date
    Oct 2003
    Location
    Seattle
    Posts
    27,308
    The ten cent deposit was and is a great thing for Michigan. I remember when I first moved to Washington I was surprised how many empty cans you saw as litter. You just don't see that in Michigan. There's always someone willing to make the effort to collect the cans and bottles to get the deposit back.

  12. #37
    Join Date
    Jul 2005
    Location
    Moose, Iowa
    Posts
    7,926
    Yep. I paid for half my senior year JH trip with my dad's empty Old Style cans. He'd get super pissed at me when he found them boxed up in my closet. Lolz. 5 cents here. It should be 10 now.

    Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

  13. #38
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    Nov 2004
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    YetiMan
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    13,370

  14. #39
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    Nov 2004
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    YetiMan
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  15. #40
    Join Date
    Oct 2015
    Posts
    1,866
    Bottle deposit is annoying. Everyone has a recycle can in my state, that we pay for. Instead, I have to collect the things and take them to some crusty machine that is out of order half the time.

  16. #41
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    Jul 2005
    Location
    Moose, Iowa
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    We load them in bags worth 12 bucks. Takes 30 seconds to drop them off and get the money on the way home or to work.

    Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

  17. #42
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    Jan 2008
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    truckee
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    23,120
    When my kids were in HS we came home after being away for the weekend to find the house absolutely immaculate and a 90 gallon recycling can completely full with bottles and cans. Alas, I think we let the city take those, or maybe a scavenger got them on recycle morning. (People who complain about the homeless and others scavenging cans from the curbside recycle annoy me. And it will be interesting to see how the new 90 gal recycle cans survive the winter in Truckee--put them out by the street Monday morning and the city plow comes by wipes them out. At least they're letting us keep our blue bags if we don't want the cans.)

  18. #43
    Join Date
    Oct 2015
    Posts
    1,866
    I get it, and have the bag system as well. BUT I have a big bin in my alley that a giant diesel truck picks up every week. Instead, I sort them separately and take an out of direction trip to drop them off. Cannot see how it is a net positive.

  19. #44
    Join Date
    Dec 2012
    Location
    I can still smell Poutine.
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    24,509
    Quote Originally Posted by hutash View Post
    Maybe she could be Trump's VP. I hear Pence is going to be out.

    Never get involved in neighborhood websites/ emails, at least not if you are a regular TGR poster. I learned quickly I can't switch of the snark.

    As to the OP, just mail back tour plastic straws that should make her happy.
    I must have amazing self-control. Around here it is called 'Front Porch Forum'. I am subscribe. I don't respond to the ass-hattery. I only post if I have stuff I want to get rid of or if I have something someone is looking for.

  20. #45
    Join Date
    Mar 2009
    Posts
    3,269
    Quote Originally Posted by old goat View Post
    When my kids were in HS we came home after being away for the weekend to find the house absolutely immaculate and a 90 gallon recycling can completely full with bottles and cans. Alas, I think we let the city take those, or maybe a scavenger got them on recycle morning. (People who complain about the homeless and others scavenging cans from the curbside recycle annoy me. And it will be interesting to see how the new 90 gal recycle cans survive the winter in Truckee--put them out by the street Monday morning and the city plow comes by wipes them out. At least they're letting us keep our blue bags if we don't want the cans.)
    Try living in a urban environment and 4-6 regulars swing by EVERY fucking week going down your driveway into your personal space the day before garbage day. I don't put ANY deposit cans/bottles in my recycle can. When Oregon went to a .10 deposit the homeless became much more aggressive about going through residential recycling cans. We have an interesting cast of characters in my hood. The older chinese folks that have always lived in this area that have always been the regulars, folks living in cars that drive around the neighborhood scavanging, homeless guy with bike trailer or shopping cart and the meth'd out tweaker dragging big bag full of cans weaving down the street unable to walk a straight line but can runs 3 minute mile.

  21. #46
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    Jan 2008
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    truckee
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    23,120
    Quote Originally Posted by fatnslow View Post
    Try living in a urban environment and 4-6 regulars swing by EVERY fucking week going down your driveway into your personal space the day before garbage day. I don't put ANY deposit cans/bottles in my recycle can. When Oregon went to a .10 deposit the homeless became much more aggressive about going through residential recycling cans. We have an interesting cast of characters in my hood. The older chinese folks that have always lived in this area that have always been the regulars, folks living in cars that drive around the neighborhood scavanging, homeless guy with bike trailer or shopping cart and the meth'd out tweaker dragging big bag full of cans weaving down the street unable to walk a straight line but can runs 3 minute mile.
    How else can the homeless afford the $5000 mountain bikes they ride on?

  22. #47
    Join Date
    Mar 2006
    Posts
    19,814
    Quote Originally Posted by old goat View Post
    When my kids were in HS we came home after being away for the weekend to find the house absolutely immaculate and a 90 gallon recycling can completely full with bottles and cans. Alas, I think we let the city take those, or maybe a scavenger got them on recycle morning. (People who complain about the homeless and others scavenging cans from the curbside recycle annoy me. And it will be interesting to see how the new 90 gal recycle cans survive the winter in Truckee--put them out by the street Monday morning and the city plow comes by wipes them out. At least they're letting us keep our blue bags if we don't want the cans.)
    WM runs its own Refund Value locations so they aren't just recycling the CRV eligible containers. They get the CRV value.

  23. #48
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    Mar 2006
    Posts
    19,814
    Since most of the localized recycling centers have closed in California competitive can diving has declined noticeably in my hood.

  24. #49
    Join Date
    Jan 2009
    Location
    North Vancouver
    Posts
    734
    Recycling is the biggest fucking scam on the planet. Stop buying shit with plastic. problem solved. It makes me sick when I want to make Pad Thai and need some basil. All wrapped in plastic trays and styro. Fak !
    There is only one store in my city that sells basil by the bunch. You reach in the big bag and grab what you need.
    Its the way you buy shit is asia all day long. What the fuck is wrong with us ?
    And what the fuck is a clamshell anyways ?
    What if "Alternative" energy wasn't so alternative ?

  25. #50
    Join Date
    Mar 2009
    Posts
    3,269
    Quote Originally Posted by old goat View Post
    How else can the homeless afford the $5000 mountain bikes they ride on?
    I once chased down a homeless tweaker stealing a gumball machine from my local Pharmacy. He tried putting it on his bike trailer and riding away but crashed when I started chasing him. The gumball machine fell off and the guy rode away screaming, " I didn't do anything". Walked into the Pharmacy with the gumball machine on my shoulder and they folks inside didn't even know the tweaker had grabbed it. If that was today he would have gotten away on his $5K mountain bike and carbon fiber trailer.

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