LCBO / The Beer Store

[gabe]

Includes soft drinks cans and bottles.

They have similar machines in the US. I have family in the states, they keep bags full of plastic/glass bottles and cans in the garage, it adds up, they take it to the grocery store get back $20 or more store credit. Or they just take the cash.

Walking by the river last month, i was utterly disgusted by the amount of cans and plastic bottles that floated onto shore . There was at least 10 bucks worth of trash just on a short hike.



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I don’t care about getting my deposits back, mostly because I drink so little that a trip to the store isn‘t worth the trouble. I put my 2-3 beer cans a month and the occasional wine bottle in the blue bin.

I kept all my empties in the garage and brought them back to the Beer Store once or twice a year. Now that my boyfriend has turned the garage into his personal fitness center, i now have my empties packed in the garden shed, i don't know when I'm going to return them. i really don't want to line up at the Beer Store and risk getting COVID for 30 bucks worth of empties.

 

[Towered]

I don't know if depressing is the right word to describe it. Productive? Meaningful? Environmentally friendly?

Unfortunately Canadians don't have a cultural ethos of cleaning up the public realm of garbage like in some Asian countries. I agree with others that it would be good to see it expanded to soft drink containers, and to more locations besides The Beer Store.

It must be a cultural thing. Every evening I see ancient looking Asian ladies pulling their carts up and down residential streets collecting all the empty bottles and cans. I keep all of our empties in separate bags so it's easy for them to pick up instead of having to dig. They're very friendly in my experience.

 

[afransen]

I don't know if depressing is the right word to describe it. Productive? Meaningful? Environmentally friendly?

Unfortunately Canadians don't have a cultural ethos of cleaning up the public realm of garbage like in some Asian countries. I agree with others that it would be good to see it expanded to soft drink containers, and to more locations besides The Beer Store.

Is it environmentally friendly for people to fish deposit items out of recycling bins to bring them away for deposit? The whole exercise is a giant waste of human effort and actual resources if all that material was going to end up in the same place: recycling centre, or for plastic, likely a dump.

 

[AlbertC]

I'll also add that having a returns program for empties also benefits restaurant and bar owners, as it's a place for them to get compensation for bringing in empty bottles, cans, and kegs. I have an aunt and uncle who used to run a restaurant in Gatineau, Quebec and they always made an effort on cashing in all applicable empties at grocery stores. Which in Quebec also includes pop cans.

 

[PinkLucy]

It must be a cultural thing. Every evening I see ancient looking Asian ladies pulling their carts up and down residential streets collecting all the empty bottles and cans. I keep all of our empties in separate bags so it's easy for them to pick up instead of having to dig. They're very friendly in my experience.

In my neighbourhood , it’s two guys in a pick up. There used to be an older man on a bicycle, but I haven’t seen him in some time.

 

[afransen]

I'll also add that having a returns program for empties also benefits restaurant and bar owners, as it's a place for them to get compensation for bringing in empty bottles, cans, and kegs. I have an aunt and uncle who used to run a restaurant in Gatineau, Quebec and they always made an effort on cashing in all applicable empties at grocery stores. Which in Quebec also includes pop cans.

Isn't it just them getting their money back?

 

[Admiral Beez]

Wouldn't you just get people fishing them out of the garbage at TH's?

Unlikely from the in-store trash, but from the parking lot, yes I suppose so. But we’ll also see them clearing up the roads, ravines and sidewalks

 

[lenaitch]

^ It might help a wee bit but unless it is onerous, people will still toss. There seems some odd aversion to hold onto empty containers or garbage; like people who toss stuff out of cars rather than simply put in on the seat beside them.

I don't get people who buy water in bottles anyway

 

[Richard White]

^ It might help a wee bit but unless it is onerous, people will still toss. There seems some odd aversion to hold onto empty containers or garbage; like people who toss stuff out of cars rather than simply put in on the seat beside them.

I don't get people who buy water in bottles anyway

Bottled water is easily storable and very versatile. If you are out and about it is not always practical to bring water with you (there is never a tap when you need one).

I have my Swell bottle for work but above and beyond that it is not always easy to find a place to fill a bottle. Walking into a store asking to fill your bottle is not an option most of the time despite what people may think. If I go to Niagara Falls for instance, I bring a bottle of Evian with me and toss it when I finish simply for the fact it is one less thing I have to carry around all day when it is empty.

 

[PinkLucy]

I have the opposite experience that you do. I have no issues refilling my water bottle, although these days I'm not going to places like Niagara Falls because, you know, stay at home orders and all that. I haven't used a disposable water bottle in years.

Pro tip: McDonalds let cyclists fill their water bottles and use the ice machine. Say you are biking if anyone asks.

 

[afransen]

I don't think we need to shame occasional bottled water users. I occasionally bring some with me on driving vacations. I probably use <20 bottles a year. Contrast that with the crazy people I see wheeling three grocery carts full of water bottles when they are on sale at No Frills. Or my neighbour who fills his blue bin to the brim primarily with water bottles.

 

[Admiral Beez]

If there were deposit return on water bottles, pop cans, etc., it would be a great help in cleaning up the water shorelines of Ontario...

From link.

A start at least.

Or we could just hire the unemployed folks as city workers to clean up the shores and parks.

 

[WislaHD]

Pro tip: McDonalds let cyclists fill their water bottles and use the ice machine. Say you are biking if anyone asks.

Starbucks was also very good with this. You could always ask them for an ice water and they would fill your bottles (or provide a Starbucks cup) with their ice machine gratis.

Hopefully these things don't change as a result of COVID.

 

[afransen]

Or we could just hire the unemployed folks as city workers to clean up the shores and parks.

A much less round-about way of achieving the goal.

I'm all for taxing plastic at source. Plastic recycling is a bit of environmental responsibility theatre. Almost all of it ends up in landfill or shipped off to Asia to wash out into their rivers and into the ocean.

 

[lenaitch]

I don't think we need to shame occasional bottled water users. I occasionally bring some with me on driving vacations. I probably use <20 bottles a year. Contrast that with the crazy people I see wheeling three grocery carts full of water bottles when they are on sale at No Frills. Or my neighbour who fills his blue bin to the brim primarily with water bottles.

Those were the ones I was thinking of; the people who can't seem to function without a water bottle in their hands, even moving around in an office environment(not to be confused with people who constantly have a disposable coffee cup in their hands). If you're exercising or doing heavy work - sure. I go through some when I'm motorcycling in the summer.