My morning commute in Davis, California, where I go to school, is fairly routine. I wait for the bus, I get on the bus, I get off the bus, and repeat ad nauseum. Every few days, though, the second step of this routine gets a little more stressful, all thanks to the older woman I’ve nicknamed the Bottle Lady.
Her habit, of collecting hundreds of bottles and recyclable cans to bring to the recycling center isn’t exactly unusual, but her hefty garbage bags are unwieldy and take a while to load onto the bus.
Unfortunately, for her, and for the countless others that count on California’s bottle deposit, one of ten in the nation, for a bit of extra money, making the journey out to the center is the only real way for her to return her recycling.
California’s so-called “bottle bill” has been around since 1987, and the state boasts over 300 billion recycled containers since that time, and a recycling rate of 75%, which is much higher than the national average of 32% (Cal Recycle, SJSU). The program’s guidelines haven’t changed in that time, adding a five-cent deposit to containers under 24 ounces and ten cents to those 24 ounces and above, promising a return on this deposit to any consumers that return the containers at a designated location.
Despite the long-term success of this program, recycling centers, which are often far from residential areas, remain one of the only places for consumers to return their recycling. Some grocery stores have pledged to accept empty containers in return for the deposit, but this phenomenon is far from universal. This difficulty of access means that sights like my Bottle Lady, or like many families’ ever-growing stash of bottles and cans are far from extraordinary.
Ireland, on the other hand, plans to implement its own deposit return scheme in the coming year, with the idea of access at the forefront of the project. Instead of sending consumers to far-off centers to return their containers, the Irish deposit return scheme places the responsibility of accepting all containers onto retailers. This, along with the innovative technology behind reverse vending machines, will allow customers to return their used containers anywhere the same containers are sold.
This ease of access is impressive, but what specifically surprised me the most, coming to Ireland from somewhere where the deposit return system is still stuck in the Reagan years, was the reverse vending machines. Instead of having to venture out to a recycling center, or even talk to a cashier, customers in Ireland can return their containers at a machine right by the front of the store. These reverse vending machines, which so far have been placed in a handful of Lidls, Aldis, and Boojums give store credit for the return of recyclables, incentivizing the act of recycling while making the process as convenient as possible.
This exciting technology has seen success in Europe, and through promotion and communications is poised to be just as successful here in Ireland. Due to their intuitive use and ease of access, I was curious to see if something similar had been attempted in California.
As it turns out, there are a small number of reverse vending machines in stores around the San Francisco Bay Area, the region in which I grew up. The type of reverse vending machine used requires an app to operate and track deposit credit, which creates a barrier to less tech-savvy or underprivileged consumers, but it is definitely a start. There is even one of these machines in the pharmacy near my parents’ house, which I’m looking forward to checking out once I return home.
This machine, and the few others like it, are not well-publicized, which makes me wonder if they will ever catch on in California or one of the other states with a bottle deposit, or if they’ll be considered a failure and decommissioned. I hope that it will be the former, but until I can go home and see for myself, I’m happy to enjoy the convenience that can be found here in Ireland.
Miranda Kushner is an intern with VOICE from California. She is studying environmental education at UC Davis and worked with VOICE in Autumn 2022.