Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Returning the Empties

In Germany you can return your empty bottles and get money for them. 

It's all done by automated machines.
 Crates of empties go in a bigger opening below, and single bottles go into this hole where they are scanned. 

You are credited accordingly and given a print-out of your credit amount which you then present to the checkout operator who will either give you the money or deduct it from your grocery bill.

Better odds than the casino slot machines!

9 comments:

  1. nzm - I had never heard of returning empties. What a convenient way to recycle. :)

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  2. it's a pain however to remember where you bought which bottles..the other day I had to drive to 3 supermarkets, as they only take back the brands they sell...but considering the money you get back for returning its worth the while. funny enough many people don't bother and just dump the bottles in the trash..which has led to a new income for many homeless people who search the trash cans for returnable bottles, so in a way the lazy bottle trashers are helping the homeless. crazy world!

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  3. Goodie Girl: that surprises me - I would have thought that these machines would be all over Europe. Most of the bigger German supermarkets have them.

    Sha: yeah, we got caught like that a couple of times. I can't see the problem in accepting other shops' bottles, except for the fact that they're forking out money for products that weren't originally purchased in the store. But that's small-minded - surely the shops should recognise that if people come to deposit bottles, they (except for the homeless collectors perhaps!) invariably spend far more in the shop than the refund amount!

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  4. Gosh thats a brilliant way to recycle.And when UAE finishes stocking up on more sexy lingerie, perfumes, some more STD's and the latest-est phone/SUV then maybe a few of these machines would be great.

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  5. Here too we have the same procedure. I guess Holland is pretty similar to Germany in its practices.

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  6. saw these in oslo.. tres cool

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  7. We used to have this in the US, walmart and Hyvee had big machines for glass, tin and plastic. good thing was you could deposit the stuff in any machines, it didnt matter where you bought it, you got a refund on your purchase or cash. I was wondering when they were gonna do something of that sort here.

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  8. We have them in Sweden as well, when we were kids we used to go looking for them in the trash can and make a few crowns to buy extra candy with, back in the day when candy cost nothing!

    Today homeless people or senior citizens with poor economies look through trash to find them.

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