I think people from California have seen CRV on bottles for so long that they sometimes think “CRV” is a generic term for a bottle deposit.
CRV = California Redemption Value
http://www.calrecycle.ca.gov/BevContainer/Why is that so ludicrous? That’s what the word “refill” means. The word as a noun refers to going back to the place where you got the drink and filling it back up. That’s what happens in pretty much every restaurant. So as long as, at some point, there was the ability to get refills, it makes sense that they would have put that disclaimer on the bottle.
If they wanted to tell you that you as a consumer weren’t allowed to refill it, they’d say “Don’t refill,” using it as a verb.
In 1960s Minnesota, it wasn’t homeless people collecting returnable bottles, it was children. My peers and I spent half our childhoods roaming alleys looking for pop bottles to turn in for cash. The regular size brought us a nickel and the quart bottles were worth a dime. Pop bottles financed everything we did when we were kids.
Reusable glass bottles were really the perfect solution for the soft drink industry. Some people could afford to throw their nickel and dime pop bottles all over the ground or into the trash, but there was an enterprising juvenile cleanup crew to deal with the littering.
The high school I went to had a similar policy, $0.10 of the price of all snack bar items was a deposit. Kids looking to augment their income patrolled the common areas looking for trash and would go turn it in at a deposit station in the cafeteria.
The campus was pretty much spotless. Being dirt poor at the time I financed my band trip fees by doing this.
As someone who plays about with water rockets, I can assure you that bottle failure is highly unlikely. A PET bottle can be pressured to 120psi, freefall point first from in excess of 300 feet into the ground sufficient to crumple it to about 2/3rds of its original length, re-pressurised to 120psi (causing it to pop back out to its original shape) and then flown and crashed again, over and over without failure dozens of times.
It will eventually fail at where it has been repeatedly crumpled. Were the bottle not abused and overpressured in this way, I suspect it could be refilled to soda level pressures far more times than anyone is likely to want to do it.
A PET bottle is an amazing thing.
You’re all misreading it.
You look at the bottle and say, “Should I recycle this?” And the bottle says, “No, Refill”
In our neighborhood, there was a kid who was legendary. His name was Preston, and he came around regularly asking if we had any empty soda bottles. Preston was absolutely charming, and when given a bottle or three or more, he’d reward you with a huge, beautiful smile. Preston let you know he was saving up for a bike.
It wasn’t just our neighborhood, either. We found out by talking to people that Preston was going all over the place. It seems EVERYONE knew about Preston, his soda bottle collection, the bike he wanted, and above all, his charm.
It took a couple of years, but eventually Preston came to collect bottles, and he proudly showed off a gleaming, black ten-speed bike that he’d earned from his “recycling efforts.”
Oh, Preston. I bet he’s driving a snazzy black sports car now. Convertible, of course.
~VOW
I think that is the case with CRV: It’s mandated by the state, and you can take your bottles to any private recycler–however, I don’t know if the rate is mandated. I’ve only gone to one recyler recently, so I can’t compare. But, unlike for the other states, they don’t stipulate the actual value for California. It just says, “CA CASH REFUND.”