Pepsi addict cashes in her can collection

10/6/2009














Pepsi addict cashes in her can collection

By TAMMY MALGESINI
East Oregonian

They were everywhere.

At the end of my kitchen cabinet, under my desk at work, in a corner in the garage and on the floor of my car - empty cans and bottles. As much as I want my deposit back, I detest having to stand on a sticky floor, smell the pungent odor of stale beer and feel the pain in my shoulder as I feed them into the machines.

I typically donate them to Special Olympics, the Umatilla High School cheerleaders or Agape House, but the last few weeks I've eyed the ever-sprawling piles and thought it would be a nice chunk of change to take with me to the coast. But, was it worth it?

It takes forever. And just when you're getting into a rhythm, you hit the daily limit and have to go to another store.

I almost took a friend's offer to help me for half the take - at least it could turn into a social event.

However, when I was cleaning out my computer bag I found several pages from the Oregon Administrative Rule, which outlined the Beverage Container Act. It's not the sort of material you curl up with and read in front of the fire, but I needed information from it when I was doing a story about the Oregon bottle bill.

It would come in handy again. Carefully counted into separate bags of 144 for larger stores and 50 for convenience stores, I embarked on a quest to get my nickels back.

As I entered the first retailer, I announced I had containers to return for deposit. The clerk told me she could take 100 containers. The other place would tell me their policy was to take up to 96.

In both stores, I responded, "According to the Oregon Administrative Rule I can bring in 144." Clerks at both places repeated their policy to me. After I showed them information from the OAR, they had to talk to their supervisor. (Sure, I could have taken the extra 44/48 cans and taken them someplace else, but that meant another stop. The whole idea was to get my deposits back while expending the least amount of energy and be home in time to watch the east coast feed of "The Amazing Race" ).

I went through my song and dance again, showing the supervisor the OAR, which states in part, "Dealers must not use this rule to frustrate the requirement of the Beverage Container Act that dealers accept returns of up to 144 beverage containers ..."

I truly do understand the frustration of retailers - they don't have room to store them before they are picked up and they have to deal with some yucky cans and bottles. I have frustrations too. I've paid a deposit, they stack up around my house and when I'm ready to return them I'd like the transaction to be as simple as when I purchased the container in the first place.

It seems the Oregon Administrative Rule trumps store policy.

I'm sure it's not every day retailers get someone coming in quoting the OAR and even packing a copy. I think one supervisor thought this was some sort of Beverage Container Act enforcement operation - similar to the tobacco enforcement decoys or Oregon Liquor Control Commission minor decoy operations.

No, it was just a Pepsi addict wanting some extra cash.
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Tammy Malgesini is the EO community editor. Her column, Inside my shoes, appears every other week. You can reach her at tmalgesini@eastoregonian.com or 541-564-4539.