[mschuster91]

> Aluminium cans are artificially made available only at tens or hundreds of times their cost to produce.

You forgot externalized costs... add the cost of cleaning up after irresponsible people leaving behind their cans wherever they want or the added costs and pollution of making a can from fresh aluminium ore (bauxite), and suddenly that "ten or hundred times" becomes "at cost".

Deposits are a regulatory way to account for externalized costs, at least to a bit.

[throwaway0a5e]

The deposit has nothing to do with the dirtiness of mining. It's so that people like you don't see a can blowing in the wind.

If it were about the mining the deposit would be on everything else made of aluminum too.

Of all the things to let into the environment aluminum is one of the least worst. As with everything else, it's yet another story about how narratives, marketing, knee jerk reactions and bike shedding are the name of the game when it comes to public policy.