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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 12.01.2015 05:45, Paul Johnson
wrote:<br>
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<div>How is this not a recycling center? I agree, perhaps
the refund namespace should be a thing, but I don't think
anybody, in practice, gives two shakes whether some
teenager in the back of Fred Meyer is counting cans out of
a cart or if they're dumping them into a CanStar bin,
unless they buy a lot of off-brand products that are
chain-specific (in which, you either would rather have
someone just count cans instead of checking to actually
see if that chain sold 'em or not, otherwise you're having
to go find a <i>different</i> chain's CanStar thingie to
try again next time you take out a load of recycling,
repeat ad nauseum, if your local bottle bill works the
same way as Oregon's). Though that might also need
supplemental tagging for "brands accepted"... </div>
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Well, it is sort of a recycling center, after all those items end up
in recycling. On the other hand there are recycling centers which do
not offer refund. I'm not really sure how to solve that particular
problem with shops that only accept certain brands. If your country
does not have a legal basis for a refund system, which is at least
controlled on a state level, this seems a lot of work for little
benefit.<br>
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However, in several European countries there are country-wide laws
in place which (in theory) guarantee you that every refund place
accepts all refundable items. Refundable items are marked with a
small icon and there are not that many exceptions, so most bottles
and cans are refundable, and accepted by those machines. Usually
markets are not allowed to decline giving you refund for bottles
marked with the symbol, but I am aware of at least one exception in
Germany and Finland, where some markets at least try not to accept
one particular item from a discount market called Lidl (usually you
have to ask a person and then they will accept it, but they refuse
to program the machine to accept those bottles).<br>
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There is even a certain culture around this whole refund system,
where some people collect bottles that are lying around and bring
them to these machines to make some extra money.<br>
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