Oregon doubled the bottle tax this month

[Keith and stuff]

If you thought paying 5cents tax per bottle of beer, soda, sparking water, juice, and yes even regular water was a lot, think again! The recycle rate in OR dropped, so after 45 years, people got used to paying the 5 cent per bottle tax and moving on with their time. The government fix was to increase the tax by 100%. Now a bottle of soda worth 25 cents might has a 10 cent tax on it in OR. Sounds good, no?

http://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-northwest-news/index.ssf/2016/08/what_you_need_to_know_about_or.html


The bill, which was implemented in 1972, added five cents to the price of canned and bottled beer, malt beverages and carbonated soft drinks (water was added in 2009).


Starting Jan. 1, 2018, that will be expanded to include all beverage containers except distilled liquor, wine, dairy or plant-based milk, and infant formula.

That's right, next year OR will expand this doubled tax rate to include many other beverages :(

[Keith and stuff]

Here is a classic comment posted in response to the above article.


jetmet
Aug 4, 2016

My local store has 4 machines. Two of those only take cans. So now we are down to 2 machines. Normally at least one of that two is broken, so now we are down to one machine that takes glass and plastic. Thus it is not uncommon to have to wait an extended period to get use of that one remaining, working machine. Redemption center? More than a gallon of gas is used getting there. So, I would lose $2.50 or usually more every trip. And all these facilities limit the number of bottles one can return, so they cannot be saved up to minimize the gas used. Is it any wonder that the roadways are littered with cans and bottles?

[bunklocoempire]

Here is a classic comment posted in response to the above article.

Value = trading goods, trading scrap

Not Value = an un-accountable third party equipped with the term "recycle", interfering with people trading goods/scrap

You need government for one of those.

[osan]

Value = trading goods, trading scrap

Yeah, except when it's not.

The bottom fell out of the glass market a few years back. The recycler in Charleston dismantled their crusher because nobody would buy the granulated glass. They told me the price had fallen to seven cents per ton. You read that right.

Of course I benefited by loading up several free tons of crush for use in the driveway.


Not Value = an un-accountable third party equipped with the term "recycle", interfering with people trading goods/scrap

Mostly true, save in cases such as that cited above. When a market goes to crap... Even so, "government" is not the answer because the best possible solution with which they can come up is to rob Peter to pay Paul. It is the ONLY government answer. All others require no government.