• nshibj@lemmy.world
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      4 hours ago

      Nah, in Germany you’re not paid for cleaning anything. You aren’t getting any money: you are fined 25 cents (for some glass bottles it’s 15, for some 8) when you buy the drink in case you don’t recycle. You might get that money back if you bring the bottle back to the supermarket, they accept it, and the return machine is working at the time. It’s a scam.

      • PokerChips@programming.dev
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        3 hours ago

        That"s not a scam. It’s a solution. Take care of your Earth.

        Unless the store is pocketing the money. I’m assuming the credit is going to a government program or non profit organization.

        • SkaveRat@discuss.tchncs.de
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          2 hours ago

          I’m assuming the credit is going to a government program or non profit organization.

          Not really. It’s complicated.

          Basically all of the money is being shuffled between importers/manufacturers, stores and consumers.

          Germany has about 95-98% return rate for the bottles (mainly because it’s somewhat lucrative to collect them). So very little money is left over.

          There’s a company called DPG that is responsible to make sure that no part of the system is profiting of it unfairly

          Germany wikipedia (annoyingly only available in german) https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pfand_auf_Einweggetränkebehälter_in_Deutschland

          All in all, it’s a net benefit. I remember the time before this system, and you had drink cans littered around everywhere. Ever since the system is in place, I can count the amount of littered cans (e.g. cans that are too crushed to be returned) on maybe one hand

      • Obelix@feddit.org
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        4 hours ago

        It’s a deposit system that works as a deposit system. And it’s purpose is to decrease the amount of bottles that get thrown into the streets and that does totally work. Just compare how many bottles are lying around in Germany to other countries.