Let's Talk Recycling

Here in Raymond and in the nearby town of Lethbridge, there is not a formal blue or green box for each home to place out with the garbage. At a local grocery store in Lethbridge is a long row of recycling bins~~ newspaper, plastic, cardboard, glass, etc. You are responsible to take items to these bins if you wish to recycle. So, in my basement I have a box for glass, one for plastic, and a bag of newspapers. When we go to town, we usually forget to take these along, so the pile gets bigger at home! But hey, I want to do my part to keep Canada beautiful.

However, as far as soda (pop) bottles and cans, these can be recycled at the Bottle Depot.

But first, let me tell you about my shopping experience. At the local store, 2-litre soda was on sale 3/$4.98. Good deal, I thought. So I picked up three and headed to the register. Total: $6.10. What? How did that happen? Enter the CRF and DEP (which can be found on the receipt. Believe me, I checked it.) On every bottle of pop there is a 25 cent deposit fee. Then the CRF, which I can only assume is the Consumer Recycling Fee, or Canadian Recycling Fee, or Crazy Rip-off Fee. Wait, I digress. This CRF fee can vary: 2 cents, 3 cents, 7 cents. I do not understand it, but it adds up. And by May 1, they will be adding a fee for the one gallon milk jugs, too.

Back to the Bottle Depot. If you save all your bottles and soda cans, you can get some money back. 5 cents for small bottles and cans (those mini kind) and 10 cents for 1 litre or more. So one day we got back about $5.00. Pay 25 cents, get back 10 cents. And please remove all the caps.