Posted in reply to the post by Braggi:
Since you're not in a city, I don't see why you couldn't just call the waste pickup company and tell them to come and get their cans and end your contract. I certainly have no such contract with anyone. We're responsible for our own trash. We generate only small amounts of "landfill" ourselves. We take a small "shopping bag" size bag of trash out about once a week and deposit it in a trash can at a local shopping center where we spend several thousands of dollars a year. I feel we are paying for that use. There is also a Carl's Jr. in that center and I often use their trash can. I don't buy from them, but I do pick up trash from their restaurant along Mill Creek Rd. on a regular basis. I feel justified in returning it to them. Most of the trash along our roads comes from fast food places. The rest is beer cans and those white plastic shopping bags, most of which blow out of trash trucks as they are on their rounds. I often stop along the road, pick up a white bag or two, and fill them with beer cans and fast food trash.
Back to your glass recycling question: glass is a resource on a par with aluminum that really makes sense to recycle. There are a lot of uses for crushed glass including adding to asphalt to make wear resistant roads. If the glass is actually melted down to make new glass objects, a whole lot of energy is saved. If only we could refill all those used wine bottles! There used to be a company in Sonoma County that collected, cleaned and resold used wine bottles, but they couldn't turn a profit. If the state modified the 2020 law that created the "California Redemption Value" to cover wine bottles, it would instantly be cost effective to reuse wine bottles.
This is from Wikipedia's article on Glass Recycling:
Reuse of
glass containers is preferable to recycling according to the
waste hierarchy. Refillable bottles are used extensively in many European countries and, until relatively recently, in the United States. In
Denmark 98% of bottles are refillable and 98% of those are returned by consumers.
[2] These systems are typically supported by
container deposit laws and other regulations. In some developing nations like
India and
Brazil, the cost of new bottles often forces manufacturers to collect and refill old glass bottles for selling
carbonated and other drinks. [end quote]
I think it's stupid we don't demand reuse. In many of the "fast food" equivalent restaurants in Germany you get your beverage (probably beer) in a heavy glass mug. You pay about $2 deposit for the mug which you can turn back in at the end of your meal or drive away with. Since most places use the same mugs you can turn it in at almost any restaurant to get your deposit back or use it as deposit for your next mug of beverage. You see very few disposable utensils in Germany and very little trash on the streets. (What a surprise!) We should do as well.
There is a big lesson to all you free enterprise supporters here. Free enterprise won't make reuse happen, or even recycling. It is laws that change the habits of nations. Individuals won't do it and businesses certainly won't do it. The 2020 law in California has been dramatically successful in reducing trash in the streets and encouraging recycling. Our waste stream has been dramatically reduced as a result. However, we can do so much better than this and improvements will only happen through the introduction of legislation. [stepping off soapbox]
So call your trash collection company and tell them you're ready to end the contract and they can pick up the cans.
Good luck!
-Jeff