Canadians are big on returning their cans, bottles and tetra packs. I am not sure whether it’s a dedication to the environment or the conflicting nature of their relationship with money that drives them*.
If it is liquid here, it’s taxed. Given the the overall distaste for letting the government have any of their money, Canadians return their drinkables – and other people’s too.
Unlike Iowa, where I used to live and returns for deposit were taken back to the grocery, here we have “bottle depots”. These separate businesses collect and refund a fraction of the deposit to the consumer. The return is so small – fueling my cheap theory – that it is hardly worth the effort of rinsing and storing and hauling to the centers, but people do it anyway. Unlike us, however, most people I have seen at the bottle depots wait until they can fill the backs of their trucks and SUV’s before making the trip. I have even seen vans stuffed with stuffed garbage bags**. It’s the only way to make this pay, but I couldn’t stand the pile-up. Of course with us it would take months and months to accumulate a truck load even given that we must go through more rice milk tetra packs than anyone we know given the lactose situation in this household.
Visiting the Bottle Depot in The Fort is always an adventure in waiting. The drop-off is behind the building and accessible only through a narrow drive that semi-circles it and once you drive into the loop – you are stuck for the duration. There is no backing up and out or scooting around vehicles ahead of you. There is simply no room to do that.
The business is operated by immigrants – Chinese, Rob thinks – which is no surprise. Many of the less desirable jobs and services fall to enterprising people from elsewhere when you are in boom times. The place gives off a sticky, smelly, bug-crusted feel from the goop covered table out front to the stained cloth bins that are visible from the drop off window.
The owners are very stringent about closing time, ordering waiting cars to back up and leave when they perceive they are in danger of missing that deadline. However they are loose on the concept of opening. I guess if I were doing such mind-numbing and dirty work all day, I wouldn’t be in a hurry to open my doors either. Yesterday, as an example, the Bottle Depot didn’t open until about 10 minutes after the posted time despite the line of vehicles out to the street. Â But I have lived in Canada long enough now to recognize the lax Canadian mind-set on time when I see it.
Canadians believe time is fluid. Arriving anywhere for any reason on time is a concept that in my experience only Mexicans are more liberal with.
My sense of “when” and my punctuality has not been improved by living here. BabyD, for example, is the girl whose mother never gets her to school on time.
It’s funny how you get used to things. So much in Canada is just a hair off my American experiences that it still gives me a Bizzarro world feel though.
* They will spend money on Holiday trailers and multiple vehicles and acreages – gawd they are insane for faux country living here – but they will cheap-cheap over GST and text messages and at the check-out in the Safeway for what amounts to pennies.
** Soda and alcohol returns mainly. Stuff we only rarely consume.
anniegirl1138 
In Maine we get all of our bottle deposit back when we make our returns. There are places, in addition to stores, to make returns, so there is profit to be made. First-time visitors to Maine are amazed by how free of litter our streets and highways are.
We are rewarded with lower garbage bills for recycling. And the garbage men have the power to not pick up you trash if it’s more than 10% recyclable.
BTW, you should think about making your own rice milk. There are recipes on the Internet. Especially when it’ nearly $3/quart now. I’m giving it consideration.
we are supplied with wheelie bins for our recycling and they are collected from the kerb every week. just as well. I suspect a lot of people would throw their bottles in the rubbish if they were asked to drop them off somewhere instead
Sally, I love Canadians. They are so American – while hating the U.S. and yet so European – even as they deny it -and it doesn’t seem the tiniest bit strange to them.
Don’t want anyone to think I am anti-recycle. Totally necessary but it amuses and saddens me that it is the money – however little – that compels people to clean up and not live in their own waste.
I am always tickled by your views of us – you are always so gently and affectionately bemused at the oddities of our kind.
many happy memories of collecting bottles for the deposit when i was a kid. i even scrounged enough my freshman year in college to occasionally buy a pack of cigarettes… and helping clean the streets? a bonus…
Thanks for dropping by my blog – and I’m awaiting that little challenge 🙂
When New York City instituted recycling it was a big win for everyone. The homeless were able to generate a bit of income for themselves and streets that were once littered from curb-to-cube with bottle refuse suddenly became sparkling clean.