Oregon launches statewide refillable beer bottle effort to curb carbon emissions

Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/09/18/oregon-launches-a-statewide-re.html

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"Frankly it’s just the right thing to do."

Often said that very same thing, regarding another round of drinks.

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Growlers are popular here as more local breweries pop up. Great for taking home a new found brew directly from the vat.

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I greatly prefer recyclable aluminum cans to recyclable glass bottles, because the container is so much lighter. But reusable containers are greener than recyclable containers, other things being equal. But is a heavy reusable container better than a light recyclable container? (What if you’re bringing it home on your bike?)

As you peddle, drink, then it gets lighter.

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As long as the local brewery will fill any growler, this is great! Otherwise, you end up with a large shelf of a dozen different growlers.

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There’s a man who comes up my block on garbage day, collecting all the cans to earn his living. It’s a hard century in America.

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Haven’t glass bottles been refillable since ever? It seems that only recently companies started to make bottles that were not intended to be reused, so if anything the wastefulness is a relatively new thing… but also i think its a cultural thing. Growing up in Latin America i distinctly remember my family saving glass bottles and returning them at the grocery store.

http://refillables.grrn.org/content/latin-americas-experience-refillable-beverage-containers

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Getting people to bring back empty beer bottles could be difficult. “Oh, YOU again…how many this time”

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I partially financed my college education by purchasing wooden crates of 16 oz. refillable beer bottles at the distributor downtown, and selling them out of my dorm refrigerator for $5 each, of which $4 was refundable with the return of an intact bottle.

Very high profit margin, even when you count the wear and tear on the Karmann Ghia!

My state abolished our deposit bottle law in 2009. Nice to see Oregon bucking a trend.

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she remembers her parents returning bottles for reuse

That was every kid’s first job back in the day - lugging a wagon full of the parents’ returnables up to the store for a cut of the return fee.

Good times…

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That was the situation here in Canada with the standard stubby bottle that all breweries used.

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Apparently, across the pond, a growler is something different, and quite nasty. I hadn’t known that until my British brother-in-law visited and spit his beer when he first heard it.

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My dad was an alcoholic that drank a lot of beer. I don’t have many happy memories of him, but driving to the beer distributor was one. You see they had one of those roller conveyors that you would put the case of empty bottles on, and watch as they slid down through the plastic curtain into the basement. Almost like Disneyland.

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Wait…what? Have you seen a brewery that won’t? If I ever found one, I’d just stop going there.

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Maybe this is more of an east coast thing

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Rules vary by state, and it usually comes down to what is on the label. I have to tape over my Texas brand labels here in California.

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Disneyland for “dead soldiers”.

I think it does so whether you peddle, pedal, or paddle!

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“The new bottles — which can be refilled up to 40 times …”

What determines this number?

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