Question about CA bottle redemption (CRV) recycling in the 1970's (Corona: apartment, to buy)

[milkit]

According to the wikipedia page on California CRV, the program did not begin until 1986:


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Califo...demption_Value


However, I distinctly remeber as a child in the 1970's taking bottles back to a small convenience store in Coronado to get like $0.05 per bottle. I got like $0.50 each time and used it to buy candy. I just handed the used bottles to the cashier. We then moved, so I don't know what happened after 1978.


So is the wiipedia page wrong??

[cb73]

Yes, it's wrong. Well, kind of. Late 60's I used to take regular soda bottles back for 5 cents, the big soda bottles were 10 cents. But you took them back to the same store.

I think the CRV was mostly just setting up redemption centers so the individual stores didn't have to deal with bottle returns anymore.

[CaliforniaPlaya]

Not exactly wrong, there just wasn't a formal program for these fees such as there is now. Most beverages came in glass bottles and cans were just starting to become a thing - there definitely weren't plastic bottles then. Think of the system now of being charged $1 or 2 for glass milk bottles, you return the bottles and get that money back. But there isn't a formal state glass milk bottle recycling program. Also, a lot of the glass bottles then would be sterilized and reused as opposed to the current system of immediately being recycled.

[milkit]

Thanks cb73 and CaliforniaPlaya! I knew I wasnt crazy! And I do remember they were all glass soda bottles, and they even made bottle plugs in case you only drank part of the bottle.

[volosong]

Used to take soda bottles to the local liquor store in the late 50's/early 60's to get spending money. I think it was two and a half cents for the small bottles and five cents for the large bottles. As a teenager, we would go around collecting cans and bottles for gas money to drive to the beach at Santa Monica, (the closest beach to where we lived). Super markets also accepted bottles and cans for deposit refund, but it was more inconvenient as we usually had to wait in line. The liquor store was just easier.

Candy bars were five cents for the small size and ten cents for the large size. A one dollar a week allowance went a long way in those days.

[CaliforniaPlaya]

There was no curbside recycling then either so it went back to the store or in the garbage, unless it was re-purposed for something else.

[CA4Now]

Originally Posted by milkit

I distinctly remeber as a child in the 1970's taking bottles back to a small convenience store in Coronado to get like $0.05 per bottle. I got like $0.50 each time and used it to buy candy. I just handed the used bottles to the cashier.

We did the same thing. Times have sure changed. Kids would have to find a recycling center today.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) About California's Beverage Container Recycling Program

[NoMoreSnowForMe]

I just remember returning glass soda bottles to the store, like Coca Cola glass bottles. The soda bottling companies would wash and re-use the bottles and sell the soda in them again.

When I was in Mexico back around 2000, they were still doing this, and some of the bottles were really worn with hardly any logo left on them. I thought it was great that they just kept re-using them.

But, it seems to me that it was more a return program done by the bottlers, and wasn't a state mandated deposit way back when. So, perhaps that's the difference in the Wikipedia dates?

[CA4Now]

Nearly 1,000 recycling centers have closed in the last two years, about 40% of the total, leaving consumers in many communities with no local place to leave their bottles and redeem their nickels.

California’s once-proud recycling program “is teetering on the edge,” says state Sen. Steve Glazer (D-Orinda). It was hit hard in 2016 when the state cut back on fees it paid to recyclers. The old fees served as recycling incentives.

Environmentally minded Californians love to recycle

[NoMoreSnowForMe]

I keep cans and glass and plastic bottles under my bathroom sink until there's no more room (small apartment), and I just took them to the local recycler and got about $4.50. It's worth it to me to do so. Buys me a little over a gallon of gas, and kept it out of the landfill.