Last week, I saw an episode of TLC’s “Extreme Couponing” where people buys hundreds of dollars of groceries for a few dollars. What I’m trying to figure out is this possible in other states, mostly East and Midwest were shown, where you’d run into other costs. For example, in California, you not only have to tax on soda, but also CRV, California Redemption Value, a fee you get back if you recycle the can or bottle. Also, even if the item is free, you still have to pay the tax for it. The state did look the other way for years on this, but not anymore. So, could one buy groceries for nearly nothing in high taxed/fee states?
Sounds like a deposit, not a fee, to me. But then, we have an established deposit system over here for quite some time, so maybe the Californians do it differently.
Even if you’ve got extremely high taxes (15%, say), getting something for effectively 85% off still looks like “nearly nothing” to me.
For most of us the CRV works out to be a tax, because the recycling centers that pay out are few and far between, and the amount per bottle is negligible. It doesn’t make sense to drive across town for a couple of dollars, so most people just throw them in the Recyclables bin and don’t get anything back. In fact, I’m not sure the deposit amounts have gone up appreciably since I was a kid in grade school, many years ago. The inflation of the mid and late 1960s was just kicking in; so to get a whole dollar or two back for a couple of cases of bottles was a big deal. That was real money to a kid in those days.
So you don’t have a working deposit system then? One where all bottles come in two or three standard sizes, and empty bottles can be returned at every store that sells full bottles; and the stores then sell the empty bottles back to the middlemen.
The middlemen then either clean them (the re-usable bottles, which started the whole system) and sell them to the drink manufacturers for re-filling, or (with one-way plastic) sell them to be shredded and re-manufactured into fleece sweaters or durable plastic bags.
And while glass beer bottles are only 7 Eurocents, re-usable plastic bottles are 15 cents, and one-way plastic bottles 25 cents. Because the one-way plastic bottles is one specific kind, it has a higher resale value than mixed plastic from the normal recycling bin.
Any likelihood of getting a working system soon, or is this taboo at the point where it would require national laws?
Many states don’t charge taxes at all on non-prepared food, so an extreme couponer who gets 90% off their grocery bill would only owe taxes on the non-food stuff, like paper towels and shampoo.
In New York, I believe that any store that sells a bottle on which there is a deposit is required to accept the bottles in return. That said, because the deposit is only 5 cents, most people in my neighborhood don’t bother, unless perhaps they’ve just thrown a big party and have a ton of beer and soda bottles to return. I put all of mine in the recycling, essentially as a donation to the poor who come around on recycling day and go through all of the blue bags in front of each building, pulling out the redeemable ones. The South American-looking lady who generally does this in my neighborhood is very neat, always carefully retying the bags shut when she’s done.
There isn’t a sales tax on groceries in California (or most other states), soda included. And the CRV is, as you mentioned, a deposit, so you can get it back if you return the containers.
I would also expect that if someone was an extreme couponer, they sure as hell are going to take the time and effort to get their deposits back.
Most people aren’t extreme couponers either.
Almost all soda sales are in either cans or plastic bottles, so no one refills anything. If you accumulate enough, it might pay to bring it in to a recycling center, but California supermarkets don’t typically take returns.
When I was in college glass soda bottles, which cost ten cents each, did have deposits and nearly everyone returned them. The deposit on a 16 ounce Coke bottle was two cents in Boston and five cents in New York, and was set and collected by the Coke company, not the state. A friend and I collected over 200 24 bottle cases in Boston and drove them to New York. This was long before the Seinfeld episode, and was not illegal.
Soda is taxed in California. You also pay sales tax on the CRV. But when you return the container you are not refunded the sales tax you paid on the CRV. 
Hmm. Clearly one of us is mistaken. I thought that soda fell into the “groceries” category and was not taxed. But I can’t find a cite to that effect and I don’t have a handy grocery store receipt to check. Searching on the subject gives several recent hits for a proposed “Soda tax” that failed (although that might have been in addition to a normal sales tax).
Do you have a cite that it is taxed?
The bottles are in standard sizes, for the most part. When I was a kid, you could take your bottles to just about any store and get your money there and then, so you usually just went back to where you bought the drinks in the first place. While it may vary regionally, and there may still be some places in America where they do this, it isn’t the case where I live.
AFAIK bottle deposits here have never included plastic. Discarded plastic bottles are a big problem environmentally, but at least those of us who care can put them in the same recycling bins as regular glass ones (and aluminum too). We don’t have to separate them.
Sadly it would be very much taboo. At the national level, a great deal of politics here hinges on what ought to be relatively minor issues, where obstinately conservative “don’t tread on me” attitudes usually prevail. Legislators don’t want to do something that might seriously anger a few percent of their base because it might cost them their seat come the next election.
As for taxing and extreme couponing, I watched the show once, and I know that it would certainly tax my patience to have one of these fanatics ahead of me at the counter.
If by “here” you mean the United States, the following states have a 5c deposit on plastic soda bottles - Maine, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Hawaii, New York & Oregon. There may be others - those are just the ones listed on the bottle I have in hand. I’m pretty sure there are states that put a deposit on all plastic bottles - in MA it’s only carbonated beverages in plastic that requires a deposit. So it’s not that’s taboo - its that different states have different deposit laws, depending on their own perceived needs.
The only state I know of that does ALL bottles beverages (including soda, beer, and bottles water, juice, and icded tea,) is Maine. Al lthe others only seem to be beer/malt beverage, and carbonated beverages.
Though VT also has a $0.15 liquor bottle deposit as well.