Remember the bottle deposit days as a kid?

[FLauthor]

Times are tough with high unemployment and jobs are scarce for teenagers but there are still states that charge a deposit for cans and bottles. It's a form of treasure hunting like dumpster diving. Sporting events and events that draw lots of people are prime sites.

State Beverage Container Laws
State Beverage Container Laws

 

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[gallileo60]

Did a ton of it as a kid...

 

[DeepseekerADS]

2 cents a bottle, and I dragged a gunny sack full (hopefully) behind me.

Holy smokes we must get getting old!

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

Bottle deposits is how I got money for State Fair, comics etc....

How about crocker bags (burlap bags) I use to pick them up at construction sites and sell them to nursery's in the late 50s early 60's......

 

[tomsright]

I lived by the local high school and they were all to cool to return them. We just walked the ditches and got our daily pay.

 

[redbeardrelics]

I am barely old enough to remember it. My older sister and her friends would walk the neighborhood roads for returnable bottles, and I would tag alone because she was in charge of watching me. You could get 5 cents deposit returned for certain bottles, that was in the mid 1960's. You could take that 5 cents and buy a full sized candy bar of your choice at the same store. I thought that was so cool, that in the late 1960's when I heard that you could get .50 cents or a dollar a piece for really old bottles that you could dig up out of the ground, that me and all the boys in the neighborhood became bottle diggers, and some of us collectors as well.

 

[Pointman]

I remember picking up bottles in the mid 70s and early 80s in ditches and cleaning them out and getting a dime a piece for them. Making $3-$5 every few months like this was good money.

I took some cans in earlier this year and got $25 and I realized that aluminum prices have not gone up since I was a teenager. Lots of work for $25. It doesn't make it worth picking up cans any more and taking the time to bag (sometimes crush) and turn in. If their prices went up with inflation then it would be worth it still.

 

[jeff of pa]

I remember picking up bottles in the mid 70s and early 80s in ditches and cleaning them out and getting a dime a piece for them. Making $3-$5 every few months like this was good money.

I took some cans in earlier this year and got $25 and I realized that aluminum prices have not gone up since I was a teenager. Lots of work for $25. It doesn't make it worth picking up cans any more and taking the time to bag (sometimes crush) and turn in. If their prices went up with inflation then it would be worth it still.

yea I don't do cans. I should but, too much time & travel for the
return these days. so I give them to my Neighbors .
the one has a tractor trailer he puts them in.
No idea how close to full he is.

Bottles, Not anymore. Not sure if there is retunable Bottles in PA any more.
first I remember to disappear was 7up returnables

& not even sure Yuengling beer comes in returnable cases either these days.

I think Fear of germs & law suits have cut down on re-using anything

Everything is thin Glass & your expected to give it away at recycling bins.

eventually they will charge you to let them take it away .
here they have already started doing away with some recycling bins.
because it is costing them $$ & they haven't decided how to pawn the cost off on us yet.
mass Littering is in our Future.

I think 10 cents was the High on Bottles here in the 60's

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

Late 50s as a kid if I needed money that was how I got it, was no allowance then....

 

[gollum]

Same here. I used to get video arcade money in the early 1970s buy selling bottles. I never did cans though.

Mike

 

[jeff of pa]

Late 50s as a kid if I needed money that was how I got it, was no allowance then....

yea the only place I ever heard of allowances was the Brady Bunch I think
(yea more then likely some older show like "leave it to beaver" or "father thinks he knows best" or something,
if I was around back then LOL)
I had good parents that, If I wanted something & they felt I would appreciate it,
they would get it for me.
but If I wanted to splurge on Nonsense it was at my cost. we had a tiny grocery store in town, for penny candy, ice cream & soda.

long gone, was the right half of this

 

[ponz]

My brother and I would grab the soda bottles from the closet and cash them in for caps for our cap guns - late 50's early 60's

Ponz

 

[pat-tekker-cat]

Gathered many old bottles for returns, we got 5 to 10 cents, depending on size.
Picked up pecans in the public park to sell for fair money, too. Baseball bats and tarps, makes for easy gathering.

 

[Diggin-N-Dumps]

I remember picking up bottles in the mid 70s and early 80s in ditches and cleaning them out and getting a dime a piece for them. Making $3-$5 every few months like this was good money.

I took some cans in earlier this year and got $25 and I realized that aluminum prices have not gone up since I was a teenager. Lots of work for $25. It doesn't make it worth picking up cans any more and taking the time to bag (sometimes crush) and turn in. If their prices went up with inflation then it would be worth it still.

Im only 35 and remember in the 80s returning bottles to the circle K at the end of the road..parents called it my allowance..lugging those bottles down the damn road..lol

only good thing was they were hooked on Mt Dew...so I was making good money . It's weird to think about cause I was only 5 or 6 doing this and never had to worry about weirdo..I'm sure they were out there..but in my hood..everyone hung out outside all the time

 

[nsdq]

oh the fun of bottle picking along with cans on the good ole gravel roads of Missouri back in the 80's was a family event ... i forget how much we got but we did get treated to ice cream after the drop off a well earn treat

 

[jeff of pa]

oh the fun of bottle picking along with cans on the good ole gravel roads of Missouri back in the 80's was a family event ... i forget how much we got but we did get treated to ice cream after the drop off a well earn treat

these days I still see people along the roads but now they pick up cans.
not for deposit, there is no deposit on cans in pa.
but they do take them to the scrap yard for aluminum value

 

[ecoast]

Went to the World Serves to see the Detroit Tigers back in the eighties...
That night there were so many thousands of people outside of the stadium drinking and carrying on the bums were having a field day. At the time the empties were worth 10 cents and you could throw them on the ground and they would all run toward them like pigeons...

 

[Bullet:Mich.]

Some thing more fun then collecting bottles and cans to sell in the late 50 was catching crickets to sell to the live bait stores. We use to make cricket traps and check them every day, the dryer it was we caught more crickets. We received .01 for black crickets and .02 for red ones, we traded for treats and motor scooter gas bought from the same store. They will bite you some times.