Trevor Dailey's Weblog

For as long as I can remember, back to when I was a kid, The Beer Store has had a 10¢ deposit on each beer bottle it sells, refundable on the return of the bottle to The Beer Store. As a kid, I can recall collecting discarded beer bottles from the ground and taking the bottles to The Beer Store to get the deposit. It had nothing to do with being "environmentally responsible" or other such nonsense, it was money on the ground. I was operating a small business, and like all businesses, profit is the most important part. Without profit, there is no business. 

The deposit on beer bottles was started in 1927 likely by the motivation for profit. It is sometimes less expensive to reuse as many bottles as possible than to make a new bottle each time. If the bottle is returned, the store refunds the deposit, and the brewery reuses the bottle. The consumer gets a little money that he or she might use toward the purchase of more beer, and this is a good business idea. If the bottle is not returned, the brewery keeps the deposit to help cover the cost of making a new bottle. If the bottle is returned, but is not reusable, the brewery sells the glass to a recycler, and that money might be used to go toward making a new bottle. It all makes good business sense. So what is wrong with that?

"We were green before green was cool. 94% of beer containers are recycled" is the new motto of The Beer Store regarding the return of empty bottles known as its "Empties Exchange". On the Beer Store website, there is no mention of the economic benefits of the refundable deposit for either the breweries or the consumers. It is all government initiated "greenwash". 

Glass bottles break fairly easily, and can be crushed and ground down into very small pieces, even a powder. Glass is largely made from sand, soda, and lime. Millions of beer bottles, already of a small size, in a landfill is meaningless.

Do not treat me like a fool. Do not try to deceive me by "going green" to try to get me to buy into the "cool green movement". Be honest, and tell me why the refundable bottle deposit is a good business model for the brewery, and for me as a consumer.

Tell me that because the bottle is of value to the brewery, the brewery will gladly refund the deposit for the return of the bottle. I have an empty bottle the brewery wants, and the brewery agrees to refund me the deposit on the return of the empty bottle. I agree to return the empty bottle for the refund of the deposit. This is a fair transaction. Stop pushing this "environmentalism" claptrap on me. I am not a stupid (beer) consumer. Go (away) green.

© Trevor Dailey