In Connecticut, we pay a five cent deposit on top of the regular purchase price for every can and bottle we purchase. For example, if you purchase a 24 pack of water you pay the $4.99 plus $1.20 for the deposit.
To get your money back you have to visit one of these antiquated old machines at the grocery store and feed your can/bottle in one at a time.
I dislike this job with a passion and procrastinate taking the bags that accumulate in the garage to the store with me when I go. Since it is spring break this week I took one of my happy assistants with me to help feed the items in. We had fun trying to estimate how many items we actually had in our 5 garbage bags. (sigh....) This trip was our biggest cash in ever with 242 items which calculated to a $12.10 refund! (I hadn't done this chore since Christmas) The machine eventually prints out a ticket with your dollar amount on it and you present it to the cashier when checking out with your groceries.
We do have the option to put all of these items on the curb on garbage day, but if we do this we don't receive our deposit back. I'm too stingy to let Connecticut keep my money!
I'm happy to follow the rules and do my part to help the environment by recycling. I'm also happy to teach our children to value every penny the Lord provides for us. I just wish there was a different method to the madness. Feeding cans and bottles into a machine one at a time in an era of such great technology seems a bit ridiculous. Do you agree?
