Return and Earn

So, NSW has brought in a 10 cent return for each can and small plastic bottle that you return. It doesn’t cover wine bottles or spirit bottles, mostly just the ones that get left everywhere and wash up on beaches all the time. And they have to be uncrushed and in good condition!

But 10 cents a can adds up, and it adds up pretty fast. True, the shops are raising their prices slightly to cover the refund, but a smart planner can find sources of additional cans to add to their returns. That recycling bin at work holds an extra ten bucks a week of cash just waiting to be collected…

Dumpster diving is not the answer

Now I am not suggesting you have to dumpster dive for a few non-crushed cans, but if you happen to know somewhere that does have a ready supply of empty ones, cash them in! I know my workplace has a huge bag of empty soft drink cans for recycling at the end of a week that could easily be liberated rather than sent to the big recycling bin we have out the front…

I live about 15 minutes drive from the nearest return location (and it is a vending machine) but you can either take it as a PayPal deposit (nice!) or a voucher for the nearby supermarket, or donate it to charity (why would you if you went to the effort of getting all the stuff there). So, I will need to make sure any return I get is larger than a half hours worth of driving in my car of petrol. So, then I have to stockpile the cans until I have enough to do a run. I am thinking a big cardboard box or an empty milk crate will do for starters, but I might see about one of those car boot canvas tidy bags so if I happen to be near the return machine, I have the cans with me (and they aren’t filling up my apartments laundry).

Anyone else found a good way to store the bottles and cans for the return deposit?