Recycling

When I was a kid I was recycling pop cans and bottles. Not so much as to pick up garbage and help the environment, but to go buy junk food at Loxtercamp's corner store.

Back in those days pop cans were two cents apiece to return and bottles five cents each. That would be of the ten ounce variety. Metric didn't come into Canada until the late seventies. And if we were lucky enough to find a twenty-six ounce pop bottle that brought in ten cents.

My friend and I patrolled the ditches around our neighborhood. If we found five cans that equalled a chocolate bar or a popsicle. We never asked for cash for returning the cans and bottles. This was strictly a straight exchange for goodies.

As the years passed bottles change from glass to plastic and a large two litre pop bottle was introduced. The deposit on the pop also increased and then decreased. Water bottles and juice boxes next were hit with deposits. Now when we purchase pop we also pay a recycling fee in addition to the deposit. Also as the years passed our recycling changed from pop to water and juice bottles.

Grocery stores and corner stores still recycle the items they sell in their store. No such luck if you go to a corner store with a name brand from Save-On Foods or the Real Canadian Superstore. They'll just tell you to take it back where you bought it for your refund.

Then recycling depots became more common. Locally we use the Cloverdale Bottle Depot located at unit 6 - 177918 - 55th Avenue. Its down that no exit street behind Stampede Tack. They take back all refundable containers and pay out in cash. Staff is friendly and the owners hire on a lot of special needs staff which is nice to see a business owner giving back to the community.

I was surprised that my father puts his empty pop and juice containers into Surrey's recycling blue box for weekly pick up. I'm sure someone is out patrolling the neighborhood and removing all the cash recyclables from the boxes. So now he saves them in a bag and gives them to me when I come over to visit.

Yesterday I took two garbage sized bags of empties to the Cloverdale Bottle Depot and came away with $11.60! Whoo hoo. That would have been a jackpot when I was a kid. I'd have bought 116 chocolate bars with that cache!

One of the largest recycling depots around is in South Surrey - the Semiahmoo Bottle Depot - located at unit 28 - 15515 - 24th Avenue. This is in an industrial complex, lot of warehouse type buildings, and they are toward the north end of the complex, about a block in when you come off 24th Avenue. They have several units for their recycling depot, including pop cans and bottles. At this depot you have to sort your empties into various plastic trays they provide. They also provide dollies for transporting them, say you've come in with a year's worth of recyling or had a big party. They also recycle old paint cans and have electronics recycling. This is where we dropped off our old TV. The dolly came in pretty useful for transporting that heavy, old thing!