Refillable Beverage Containers-The Return of a Good Idea?

Do you recall the glass bottles from decades past?  Americans used to drink their soda from glass bottles that are collector's items today.  But more importantly, do you remember how those glass bottles were used?  The bottles were returned to retailers and then refilled before they were sold again!  Could it be that we had a very efficient recycling system to start with, and then we lost it?

Here's a glimpse of a blog post from "Zero Waste Europe" about this very idea:
"Not many decades ago beverages were generally bottled in refillable containers with deposits.  Deposits are a sum of money we give as a security for an item acquired for temporary use, once we give back the item we get back the money.  In the last decades and years, this has changed; the trend goes towards throw-away one-way packaging.  This is a very inefficient way of using resources."

Read the rest of the blog and see the results they are getting in Europe with beverage container deposits:
http://www.zerowasteeurope.eu/beverage-packaging-and-zero-waste/

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