[542458]

I somewhat agree, but it's probably more complex than that - We have a country-wide system of reusable aluminum and glass containers that can be returned for refund and a significant portion of the population can't be bothered and just chucks them in the trash (or worse, the gutter). Lots of people don't respond to incentives well.

[carlmr]

The incentives aren't strong enough then.

In Germany it's 25 cents for plastic and aluminum. 8cents for glass.

A lot of people just throw the glass away in public bins, because a) glass is heavy and b) 8 cents is too little incentive.

The 25 cent cans most people return. If it was 1€ a glass bottle you bet your ass people would return them.

[mauvehaus]

We buy milk from local dairies in returnable glass bottles (available from some area supermarkets, it's not like we're going to the farm). The deposit is, indeed, $1-$2 (depending on the dairy and size of the bottle).

You can bet your ass we return them.

[ericd]

Yeah, there’s no way we’re tossing our $3 milk delivery bottles…

[ClumsyPilot]

> We have a country-wide system of reusable aluminium and glass containers that can be returned for refund and a significant portion of the population can't be bothered

Typically metal is sorted out of every trash flow, it's really easy to detect and separate. Glass and metal are both 100% recyclable. If the incentive covers the cost of recycling / recovering the materials, it does not matter if people throw them away, they are just throwing away their own money.

[modzu]

i mean the refund has been like 10 cents since 1965, the incentive isn't what it used to be