Container Deposits: New Homeless Initiative to Raise Bottle Deposits

While preparing to write this article, a headline came up from the online news source The Onion: "New homeless initiative to raise bottle deposit to 12 cents." Despite complaints from protesters, this should be in effect by mid-November, 2007.

Currently, only eleven states have container deposits. When it first began, more than two decades ago, the primary reason was citizens' growing concern for the environment-- charging people a few extra cents per can or bottle resulted in consumers returning the containers in order to receive the refund, which in turn led to less litter on highways and in other public areas. Both the lessening of litter and consumers wanting their money back are good reasons to care about the status of the deposit laws.

However, the article in the Onion was the first I'd seen the issue of homelessness addressed in the interest of container laws. As I currently reside in an area where there is a very large population of homeless people, I'm fully aware of the topics brought up in the Onion. But before reading it, I'd planned to address yet another side of this issue: that during the last year or so, more and more stores are refusing to accept bottles and cans for refund, or putting ridiculous limits on the number of containers which can be redeemed at a time.