We've got an awful problem this summer. Quite literally .... semi trailer loads of deposit bottles that have been donated for local charitable purposes. It's nearly impossible to find a redemption center that will accept that kind of volume because the counting & sorting is so labor intensive.
Besides which ... they are dirty, filthy, grubby, nasty after they have been sitting in the summer heat for more than a week. Some have been sitting in storage for years. Nobody is willing to do the work of handling them.
I think the Maine problem is that they haven't updated the deposit values since the "bottle bill" was put into law back in the 1970's. Most people don't want to be bothered with chasing nickel deposits these days so they either donate them or just throw them in the trash.
The bottom line is that the numbers just don't work anymore. Even the bottle redemption centers are going under because labor costs are high and they can't find enough people to do the work because of the labor shortage here.
Thank gawd this (mostly) isn't my problem to deal with. They've tried to wheedle me into dealing with it at work but i'm not touching that one with a ten foot pole !
This is terrible to say .... but it's amusing to watch others struggle with this mess because they were greedy and thought there was money to be made in deposit bottles. They had no idea of the amount of work they were getting themselves into.
A better man wouldn't take this attitude. About the only thing i can say my defense is that i've offered to advise them on how to organize their work and get things moving again. They don't seem to have any interest in doing that because they would actually have to earn those nickels.
* Silly people * They thought they could just collect bottles and that it would somehow magically turn into money.
( It doesn't work that way. )
// Rant over //
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