Rant #3,133: Broken

Today is the day that I am bringing in my bottles and cans—mostly plastic water bottles—to the supermarket for recycling.

I usually do this every other Monday, but I couldn’t do it this week on that day because I had to go with my wife to the doctor to find out how she was doing after her fall.

And I could not go yesterday, because 1) I had to take my wife to the gym she belongs to so she could tell them that she was holding off on her membership while she recuperates, and 2) I was just too busy with things from work to take the time out to do this.

So today looks like the day, and I will do this after I bring my son to work.

Maybe, if I can finish what I have to do early this morning in a reasonable amount of time, I can bring the bottles in before I take him to work, but somehow, I doubt that I am going to have the time to do this, so doing this after taking him to work is a better time.

And this afternoon, I have to pick up my son from work, and right after that, take my wife for another CAT Scan to see how see how her head wound is healing and that everything else there is getting better.

I don’t mind bringing in the bottles and cans, as I have been doing this for decades, or since New York State instituted this program probably around 40 years ago.

What I do mind is that at least at the supermarkets that I go to, a lot of times the machines don’t work, the returns area is filthy, and the restriction of 150 bottles at a time is not enforced.

I have seen people bring in thousands of bottles at a time, which is against the law in New York State, and what they do is hog the machines so you can’t get to them … and when you finally get to them, they don’t work.

There are two types of machines that these supermarkets use, and the grocery closest to my house uses the old fashioned one, the one where you literally have to shove the bottle or can into the machine, it reads the URL code, and it either accepts or rejects the bottle or can.

These machines are so filthy that they often reject perfectly good bottles and cans, so you just have to shove them in again until they accept them, often taking the bottle caps off of the plastic bottles to do so (why, I don’t know, third base).

And then you have the newer machines, which use a conveyor belt to bring in the bottle or can, which is a cleaner and better method than the old fashioned one.

And each gives you receipts—not cash as they used to—when you are done with your recycling—a ploy to get you into the store, where you will invariably buy something with the cash that you received from the recycling.

Now, beyond the broken machines and filthy conditions, there is a major problem with the newer machines, which I cannot believe is not illegal in New York State.

One supermarket’s machines only accept bottles from their store, meaning that if they do not sell a particular brand of water or seltzer or soda or whatever—even if it is a major brand—the machines will not accept the bottles or cans.

This, of course, should be illegal, in particular with the branded products, because they are so plentiful and most people buy them rather than the no-brand or store brand.

I mean, we are supposedly recycling these bottles because we are trying to help our environment stay clean of these bottles and cans, so aren’t we all in this together?

What infuriates me most about this is that the store I go to with the conveyor belt machines is one of those German-based, smaller supermarkets which only sell a short list of items, so they invariably won’t offer even the most popular water or seltzer to their customers, so the bottles and cans won’t go through.

Why isn’t this illegal?

We are trying to keep the environment clean, our shared environment, not just the one where the supermarket operates.

Why are these bottles from major beverage producers not accepted in these stores’ machines?

It is infuriating, and not worth the nickel I get for each bottle or can I recycle, but the other store I go to generally does not accept the other store’s no-brand and store brand bottles and cans, so as you can see, there is something of a conspiracy here as to what one supermarket accepts in my community and what one supermarket does not accept.

We share the same environment, so why aren’t the acceptances reciprocal?

Is this about the environment, or is it more about business?

I think the latter, and that is just so wrong.

It is like saying that the store has the power to decide whether it will even accept a national brand of water, and if it doesn’t accept it, just throw it on the ground, because you aren’t going to get the lousy five cents for it anyway.

That is exactly what we were doing as a society before recycling came to the fore, so we haven’t really progressed that much in 40 years.

Recycling because we are so concerned at saving the environment?

Hah!

It all has to do with business, which means that ultimately, it all has to do with the money.