Saving Soft Drink Bottles Amp Taking Them To Grocery Store To Get Your Deposit Back
| Field | Home |
| Went Obsolete | Early 1980s |
| Made Obsolete By | Disposable bottles and recycling |
| Knowledge Assumed | None |
| When useful | Raising money for beer, candy, or charities |
This really isn't a skill, so much as a frugal and environmentally friendly way of life that's passed away.
Until recently many juristrictions required a deposit to be paid on soft-drink, beer, and perhaps other bottles. Bottles, generally made of glass at the time, could be returned to the vendor to claim the deposit. The bottles would be washed and reused. Deposits were required to reduce waste or littering, and to encourage bottles to be returned.
Consumers would save their empty bottles and return them when enough had accumulated. Children would collect discarded bottles from roadside litter and trash cans, and claim the refund for pocket money; often converting bottles directly into candy. Charities would organise bottle drives, visiting every house in a neighbourhood to ask for donations of thier empty bottles.
Deposits on bottles were phased out as soft drink companies switched from reusable glass to plastic packaging. Glass was more expensive to manufacture and resuse, and heavier and thus more costly to transport. Recycling programs in many comunities replaced reuse following the ending of deposit programs.
Deposits are still paid on beer bottles in many places, so this skill is not completely obsolete. However, the volume of bottles on which deposits are available is much less than it once was, rendering the bottle drive a poor money maker.