Why don't people give the bottles back ??

[RokDok]

I'm not mean with my homebrew and have given lots away both of cider (bottles are all flip top ) and beer ( the bottles are the result of hours/ days of recycling bin diving, getting smelly, cleaning soaking and sterilizing ).

I always plead to have the bottles back ( I like to have some 'sets' e.g. erdinger, Efes, Newquay Brown, Magners etc. for different beers)

Why is it that so few people give them back ??

The postman & thatcher were really prompt- in fact the thatcher is converted and is about to start brewing.

I'm compiling a mental blacklist- if you don't give the bottles back then no more beer, simple.

RD

 

[PD]

that's my method.... and I make sure they know it. Surprising how many suddenly return...with extras.

 

[DirtyCaner]

I tend to give away the crap bottles or the ones I cant get labels off of easily.

How are you anyway Dok? I do appreciate all the advice you gave me for large scale setup, I'll be posting update with pics soon but its kinda ground to a halt until I can get electrics sorted...

 

[RokDok]

I'm good DC, thanks

Brewing's a bit like Mau's perpetual revolution : Just bottled a couple of brews using my own hops ( I froze them as soon as I picked them and used them 'green' a week or so later ) - very pleased.

Currently contemplating getting a conical + fermenting fridge if I can get one big enough etc. etc.

Look forward to your pics.

Cheers

RD

 

[Moley]

Ditto, I only tend to give wines away in screw tops or beers in 500ml bottles.

If I ever give wines in corked bottles or beers in proper pints, I make damned sure they know there will be no more unless I get the bottles back.

 

[Aleman]

I use the if you want any more . . . give me two rinsed bottles back method!!!

 

[Moley]

Tony, I like the way you think :hat:

 

[Bobw]

I have no idea, but they don't and that's a fact. I did have forty Tangle Foot bottles but it seems I'm now down to thirty eight. Gonna go round tomorrow and either get them back or offer to "send the boy's round". On the plus side my stock of Fullers bottles is steadily growing and as my mate Neil is so fond of their products looks set to continue that way for a few weeks yet at least. (He's doing his first brew on Saturday but is determined to stick it all in some horrible plastic keg thing).

Was doing some "research" in The Plow at the weekend and noticed some Grolsh bottles at the end of the bar, now in my stash. Aparently they just get put in the recycling anyway so I'll be back for some more on Friday. They're for my turbo cider, hopefully once the landlord sees that I definately want them he'll start putting them to one side for me. Might be worth trying your local.

Just noticed I have another 2 empty's to wash and sterilize now, wonder where they came from........... :drink:

bob

 

[Frogfurlong]

Recycling.

No seriously, this is the reason we don't see bottles coming back.
We are bombarded with the recycling message every day, we hear of folk getting fined for putting the wrong stuff in the wrong bin or leaving the right bin out on the wrong day. It's enough to make anyone a paranoid jibbering wreck. Out of fear they put all glass in the appropriate bin and this also includes the bottles we have lovingly collected and recycled ourselves.
Years ago the mere mention of homebrewing would bring a plethora of carrier bags clinking up the garden path filled with empties. It was often followed by the sound of full ones going back down the path :lol:

Recycling I tell you.... It's evil :evil:

 

[Bobw]

"Recycling I tell you.... It's evil" This whole thing is worse than you realise, they're putting beer in cans now as well, and I'm not just talking double diamond and heineken either, proper beers! Whoever had that idea should be taken out the back and told to get digging. When you sample your next brew, whatever that may be, just stop and ask yourself, does this need a nasty metalic after taste? If it's a Tesco value bitter clone then may'be, but otherwise I doubt it.

Oh sod it, pointless washing just two bottles isn't it :drink:
bob

 

[pollymorph]

I grab mine from work, I work with students and they drink shedloads! Got a very nice collection of Bud bottles building up as well as some bulmers bottles. I do have a look of fear though when I hear glass going into the recycle bin. Luckily not many get away as two of us at work brew and we are the ones that collect the glass boxes

 

[beermaker]

bloody recycling!!!! I'm a raving leftie with the best of them but my councils deputies for municipal waste management (thats bin men to you and me!) are the most troublesome buggers!! We're a family of five, we recycle like it's going out of fashion (right down to the kit kat wrappers!) yet if they don't like the look of our four bags for plastic and card, three boxes for cans and glass and bag for paper they just leave them! and the net result? they end up in the sodding wheelie bin next week because we don't have the space for a months worth of recycling! the bar stewards!!!!! rant over!!

 

[rich27500]

I also work on the 'if the bottles come back they want more' principle. If they don't I assume they're too polite to say it wasn't for them.

 

[GrumpyBunny]

I usually end up giving away more booze than I drink and I get annoyed when people don't return the bottles as requested.

I also implemented the one strike policy; "no return bottle - no more beer" and it works. In fact, after my friends wife "recycled" one of my bottles he made her buy him some beer, then wash out and remove the labels from the empties. That was his story anyway. :lol:

 

[BarnsleyBrewer]

Same here...
It really pisses me off when they either don't come back or if they do there not rinsed. Grrrr :twisted:

BB :drink:

 

[narmour]

Recycling I tell you.... It's evil :evil:

I heard it on good authority that the reason bottle banks accept glass as a mixed lot ie. not separated by colour anymore is that the councils get a better price for them when they are crushed down and used as hard fill for road building and the like. It turns out that too many bins of one colour glass for recycling were being ruined by idiots who couldn't be arsed separating the colours out and left one brown bottle in a clear lot. The whole lot of glass was ruined so that batch had to go to landfill. So the councils cut their losses and have stopped recycling glass in the conventional way.

 

[Baz Chaz]

Yup the 'no returns no more beer' policy works here as well, there's a chap who used to turn up regularly with a couple of carrier bags full of empties when I was building up a stock, he'd even cleaned and 'de labelled' the bottles as well for me :!: We still operate on full ones for empties agreement but not quite in the numbers we used to :

 

[RokDok]

Thanks guys,

I am pleased I am not alone.

Cheers

RD