In Germany mineral water bottles have a refundable deposit levied on them.
Lots of people searching out discarded bottles, saves them getting left laying around.
In some supermarkets there are automated collection points you put the empties in to get a refund
Can either get a repayment voucher or leave it for charity, in my experience (mainly REWE stores) majority left it for charity
I have also seen charity collection bins for empties too, about time we had a similar scheme here
About an hour ago i put my recycle rubbish out, we use milk in plastic bottles, just been out again and someone has sorted through the plastic rubbish and taken all the tops from the milk bottles, talk about weird.
I remember a friend collecting them and giving them to charity, they do have a financial value albeit a very tiny one.
The tops generally get recycled into the core coverings for fibre optic cable... Yes you need a container load to make a tonne but conversely you don't need many to make a kilometre of fibre optic core covering.I’ve just read, 1 ton of plastic tops = £60 which means you need 80 tops to equal 1p.
Any value is easily wiped out by storage and transport costs.
I used to be in to locksport, more specifically pick making and ironically those same wiper blade inserts are quite sort after in that community as they they make excellent pick blanksMaybe they needed milk bottle tops for a specific purpose. Like putting under chair/table legs to stop them scratching a floor or summat. You just don't know. I've been known to scavenge for useful bits; I once went to Halfords car park at night, cos I needed a piece of windscreen wiper blade spring (you know, the flat thin steel stips they have inside, which are still in the rubber bits when people go to Halfords for new blades, fit the new ones they've just bought, in the car park, then discard the old ones on the floor). Why? Well; a flatmate went out of the front door, and shut it behind him, thinking someone was in. Of course he didn't bother to bring his key. So I worked out that the back door, which had a key in the lock, could be opened if I used something long and thin, to jiggle the key out so I could put my key in and unlock it.
The doggers thought I was a right weirdo...