Re:Albuquerque program hires panhandlers to work in maintena...
by vidarh on Saturday August 13, 2016 @09:22PM
(#12283880)
Norway has an interesting approach to the bottle return.
There is a tax on beverage containers of all types. This tax is reduced to be inversely proportional to return rates when return rates exceeds a certain level. So return rate of 40% means the seller pays only 60%. There is an additional charge on all containers that are not recyclable, regardless of the return rate.
There is then a recycling scheme that retailers can participate in which involves bottle collection and centralised reuse (glass bottles in good condition only) and recycling (glass and plastic bottles) and redemption. As a result of the high return rates coupled with the tax reduction, most larger stores etc. have machines you can feed bottles for store credit, and at least when I was a kid pretty much any corner store etc. would also take bottles and pay out cash.
This ability to return and redeem everywhere made picking bottles a simple way of making extra cash without having to go somewhere. When I was a kid it was a go-to way of supplementing my allowance, and you'd also see homeless people and retired people etc. doing it.
It's given Norway a return rate for glass bottles of 99%, and an overall return rate for recyclable beverage containers of 95%, which is well in excess of most places with bottle return programs.
Retailers have strong incentives to participate in the recycling programs to reduce their tax, especially given that all their competitors does too, and people expect to be able to return their bottles at the same time as making their purchases - if you don't participate in the return program, you force your customers to make an extra trip if shopping with you.
The fee used to be quite substantial, though I believe it makes up a smaller percentage of most beverages now as I don't think (I haven't lived in Norway the last 16 years) the redemption rate has kept up with inflation. When I was a kid at one point the bottle return for 0.5l bottles of soda was about 5% of the purchase price.
There is a tax on beverage containers of all types. This tax is reduced to be inversely proportional to return rates when return rates exceeds a certain level. So return rate of 40% means the seller pays only 60%. There is an additional charge on all containers that are not recyclable, regardless of the return rate.
There is then a recycling scheme that retailers can participate in which involves bottle collection and centralised reuse (glass bottles in good condition only) and recycling (glass and plastic bottles) and redemption. As a result of the high return rates coupled with the tax reduction, most larger stores etc. have machines you can feed bottles for store credit, and at least when I was a kid pretty much any corner store etc. would also take bottles and pay out cash.
This ability to return and redeem everywhere made picking bottles a simple way of making extra cash without having to go somewhere. When I was a kid it was a go-to way of supplementing my allowance, and you'd also see homeless people and retired people etc. doing it.
It's given Norway a return rate for glass bottles of 99%, and an overall return rate for recyclable beverage containers of 95%, which is well in excess of most places with bottle return programs.
Retailers have strong incentives to participate in the recycling programs to reduce their tax, especially given that all their competitors does too, and people expect to be able to return their bottles at the same time as making their purchases - if you don't participate in the return program, you force your customers to make an extra trip if shopping with you.
The fee used to be quite substantial, though I believe it makes up a smaller percentage of most beverages now as I don't think (I haven't lived in Norway the last 16 years) the redemption rate has kept up with inflation. When I was a kid at one point the bottle return for 0.5l bottles of soda was about 5% of the purchase price.