How do you go about recycling soda cans and bottles if there is no cash deposit value on the can/bottle?

Question

To elaborate:

In the state of Massachusetts, a certain brand drink may not have any deposit return. And therefore, these bottles/cans will not be accepted by the bottle return machines in any supermarket (the most common of places to have these machines).

I do NOT want the money I receive from the bottle deposit. I'm just curious how I can go about recycling bottles/cans that won't be accepted by these machines.

It seems like other bottle recycling recepticles are few and far apart. Is there some simple way to resolve my dilemma? Do I need to drive miles and miles to throw away bottles/cans that the supermarket won't take?

This feels like a basic recycling question. Please be thorough...links are appreciated

Answer 1

Put them in a box and ship them to Al Gore: High Priest of the Church of Global Warming; Nashville TN.

Answer 2

In California, and other states, your city should provide you with recycling bins to use along with trash pick-up. It is beneficial to recycle with your city as it helps offset the costs of trash collection since the money they get for recyclables is (ideally) translated into lower costs for you. Plus, you are being environmentally friendly by not driving your car to a store to recycle your cans/bottles. If the money for recycling is more of your concern, you should know that the free-standing recycling facilities that are often in the parking lots of grocery stores and the like often do not give you your full redemption value, but rather give you an amount based on the weight of your items. The machines in stores usually give you full value, but you will need to be patient as they are slow.

Answer 3

Put the cart before the horse. What does consuming the types of products in most of those types of containers have to do with green living. The reasons that you do not have the power of thought to discern what to do with those recyclables may have to do with the content therein. Try going without the content for a month or so and see if your problem doesn't magically go away.

Answer 4

Some of the cans and bottles we recycle right here at home...we find anther use for them. For example ice tea containers, we wash them out with a damp cloth and dry them with a paper towel and then use them for storing our pasta and cereal. We take off the label ( if we can ) and write the name of what we have put in the container with a magic marker. Jars we save for things like home made sauce and things of that nature. Not only does it keep iy out of the land fills, but we also save money on having to but containers. we also use them for arts and craft projects oneidea is we made wind socks out of bottles. We took some pictures from the childrens coloring books and copied them on the printer, colored them, and glue the pictures on the bottle. We cut the bottom off, glued somelong streamers on it, tied some wool and hung out side to blow in the wind. There is some many things you can do, just let your mind open . Have a block party and make up projects for the children.Make project with the children for birthday parties. There are so many wonderful thing you can create from trash. Its a woderful thing to know you all create it all by your selfs and kept it out of the landfills Thank you may Have a blessed day and may your angel(s) never leave your shoulders. tiggergerl1962 aka Kathy

Answer 5

If you are not concerned with the money, then can't you just throw them into any recycling bin? In such a progressive state as Massachusetts, it surprises me that there aren't convenient recycling bins near you.

If you wanted money, you could always bring the un returnable cans to a scrap recycler for the aluminum.

Answer 6

We hear this all the time which gets back to the lack of standards at the city level. Some cities allow for multiple containers to dispose of your waste from Yard, to Plastic/Glass and of course regular waste. Those cities are managing it correctly and have been advancing their revenue back to their own budgets by supplying each home with the proper containers and minimizing the effort to seperate the reusable sources.

Our approach is to get involved with your local government and search out cities that are doing the right recycling programs with proper management.

Answer 7

not sure how it goes in mass, but in oregon you can recycle anywhere. alot of stores will only accept the bottles and cans of the products they sell, so if you get items like sam's club, or if you get soda from specific super markets that sell their own brand, then you have to take it back to where you purchased it. however, they do have recycling cans and stations just about everywhere for those that would like to recycle but aren't looking for a return, so you simply drop your can/bottle in a recycling can. you dont get a deposit back, but you still get to recycle

Answer 8

We have curbside recyling where I live. I just toss the cans, bottles, newspapers, plastic etc. into the bin and once a week the recyclers come and pick it up. No cost to me.

Answer 9

take them to the local recycling place -- the price of cans in illinois is running about 66 cents pound

Answer 10

I donate all soda cans, newspapers, magazines and mail to the local school for re-cycling