[EE84M3i]

>Here all shops that sell such goods are required to accept the containers in return

How does this work for convenience stores or other non-supermarkets that incidentally sell drinks in cans/bottles? They have to have a machine?

[qw]

The machine is completely optional and just there to save time if they get a lot of deposits. They can handle it manually if they want to.

There is a limit to how large the deposit can be for stores without a machine. If you come with a big trash bag with bottles/cans, they have the right to refuse and refer you to a place with a machine (most grocery stores have machines)

[oaiey]

Well, not everyone needs to do a reverse vending machine. Just hand them back to the cashier and he returns you money. Goes that far that when a restaurant sells a full bottle they need to take it back.

We have this system also in Germany since the late 80s (I think) and it works very well. Current incentive ranges from 8ct (beer glass bottles ... beer lobby always has exceptions ;)) to 25ct (plastic bottles)

[faeyanpiraat]

Do the bottles need to be full size, or do they accept crushed ones?

[MandieD]

The lightweight plastic ones are "Einweg" ("single use"), and the deposit is to get the material back for recycling - as long as the deposit label will scan, it's accepted. It's easier to scan them in the automats if they're not crushed; my German husband does not seem to have fully internalized this, so I reinflate them when they get rejected.

Glass bottles (beer, juice, milk and yoghurt) are "Mehrweg" ("multi-use"), and they actually want a bottle to sterilize and reuse (preferably with metal lid in the case of the milk and joghurt bottles), so if it's broken, it's technically trash and should go in the Altglas (old glass) containers you see at least once in every city neighborhood.

[ratww]

> Glass bottles (beer, juice, milk and yoghurt) are "Mehrweg" ("multi-use")

There is also a special case of a Mehrweg 1L plastic bottle, used mostly by Coca Cola. It is also sterilised before reuse.

> preferably with metal lid in the case of the milk and joghurt bottles

Ooops, I didn't know that. Thank you.

[max_hammer]

If barcode is readable they accept semi-crushed bottles.

[biztos]

For plastic bottles at least for the machine you would have to un-crush it, it scans the bottle.

For beer bottles, I dunno, try it out and report back?

[faeyanpiraat]

It would be quite a long trip for me to try it.

[ratww]

How do you crush a beer bottle? They're always glass, no?

Or do you mean the beer can? In this case they can't be crushed, because the barcode has to be readable!

A friend tried hehe. If they're not too damaged you can put them back into shape, the machine is quite robust.

[bouvin]

At least here in Denmark, they very often do. If they do not, you can just hand the empty to the shopkeeper and they will reimburse you.

[gnopgnip]

In MI it is the same, small stores manually do it. You hand them a box with 12 cans in it and they credit you $1.20

[bell-cot]

My experience in MI* is that a fair number of stores can be rather sticky about returns - "we don't sell that brand", "did you buy it here?", "come back when the machine is fixed", etc.

Conveniently, I live in a large-enough urban area to just take my business elsewhere.

*Michigan, U.S.A.

[ratww]

Michigan's 10 cent rate is part of the plot of the legendary Seinfeld episode "The Bottle Deposit".

In this episode Kramer and Newman scheme a plan to deliver bottles from New York (where deposit was only 5c) to Michigan to cash in.

[ubercore]

At least where I am in Norway, there are far more grocery stores, but they're all smaller. So there are, relative to the US, fewer pure "convenience" stores, and more small groceries. Not sure if this holds true everywhere, but thought it added some context to your question.