Redemption!

So, I decided that if I'm going to be paying the deposit for bottles and cans (something I've never done really with my main beverages of milk and water), I'm going to get that money back. So, after three weeks of collecting mostly sparkling water and root beer bottles (for when Dorian visits and helps me figure out the house), I decided that I needed to try out the CRV (California Redemption Value) system. I found a redemption center close to school and decided to try it out. For a little background...in Massachusetts, when you redeem bottles you go to most any grocery store and put the bottles and cans in a machine that spins them around to read the bar code, washes them (I think) and crushes them. It's great because you can do it during store hours at your convenience, usually without waiting too long. Here in CA, you have to go to a special place that has special hours and follow their special process. I tried to redeem earlier in the week and I was told where the place is by someone at Long's Drug Store but couldn't see anything but trailers, so I didn't know what was going on. I went back to redeem on Saturday and found the trailers open and people were gathering. The way it works is they give you one trash barrel for each type of container you have (plastic, clear glass, green glass, brown glass, and I think that's it). You separate your stuff and if you have a lot, they weigh it (you can see the weighing in the first picture). I had $1.50 worth so he just counted. Compared to these other people, I was a lightweight (...yeah). It's actually amazing to watch people roll up with their trucks with everything already crushed and separated. Despite the fact that there's an electronic scale and the guy used a palm pilot -like device to record and calculate everything, you don't actually get money there. You get a receipt that you have to take a few stores down to Foods Co, a grocery store that feels a bit warehousey and was an interesting place in its own right. I was concerned that I'd have to buy something but the first guy I asked, who had no idea what I was asking about, just told me to go to the cashier and ask. It worked! I got a dollar fifty.

The final analysis is that I think I'm going to turn into one of those people who collects lots and lots of cans so I don't have to do that every week just for a dollar in reward.