Truer words have never been spoken. Although my protest will go unnoticed, I'm sure, since the bottles won't actually make it into the truck. The guy who comes down my street rummaging through the recycling boxes will simply have to add an extra carrier to his bicycle to hold all the wine bottles he's about to start collecting.

You're spot on, as usual. Unbelievable that any government would get away with a scheme so utterly ridiculous.

Chris: I hope you soon turn your talents to getting Toronto to extend its last call. Being feretted out of a bar at 1:30 AM is an embarassing experience and makes just about as much sense as being forced to drive across town to deposit wine bottles.

I blame MADD.

Chris: I hope you soon turn your talents to getting Toronto to extend its last call. Being feretted out of a bar at 1:30 AM is an embarassing experience and makes just about as much sense as being forced to drive across town to deposit wine bottles.

I blame MADD.

You don't fool me, you beer swiller. You don't drink wine!

Hahahah, I'm just kidding. You'll drink anything.

Okay, I live out west, and while the view is obscured by distance some things are crystal clear. McGuinty makes simple things look tough and complicated on purpose, as distraction. He and his party live in a quiet trembling fear that the truly tough and complicated will soon demand a response, and should he not have minor problems running interference the people of Ontario will notice his patent inability to respond to a crisis. Elegant, simple, solutions are beyond him. You might be better off building a pyramid of bottles on the lawn of Queen's Park. When McGuinty sent someone to dismantle the pyramid you would then have the small satsifaction of a lucid response from your premier.

I keep my bottles for my own recycling purposes - to bottle my homemade wine. Will I be getting a refund on the deposit?

"Will I be getting a refund on the deposit?"

No - you've just bought the bottle for 10¢

Remind me again why curbside recycling is a good idea...are we running out of glass? Land? Bauxite?

The original logic of bottle deposits was about combating "litter". The deposits worked splendidly as they encouraged people to return bottles and cans rather than throwing them out car windows.

But every claim advanced for bottle deposits beyond preventing litter should be treated with the same wave of skepticism you reserve for the environmental efficacy of blue box recycling.

The green box (organics) recycling sure does make life convenient for raccoons, though.

"No - you've just bought the bottle for 10¢"

Incorrect. I purchased the bottle when I purchased the wine. The total cost of the wine, among other things, includes the cost of the bottle to the original winemaker.

"I purchased the bottle when I purchased the wine."

Obviously, you did not. The fact that someone further down the supply chain sold the product (if they did so) on a "bottle included" basis is irrelevant - the person you are buying from is not necessarily doing the same.

As an Albertan I view the whole beer/wine/liquor retailing system in Ontario as incredibly weird yet scandalous. So you but your liquor at the government store but return the bottles to the beer retailing monopoly? Sounds like I nice kickback to me. Question is, who did the Beer Store people bribe to get this sweetheart retailing deal? (private monopoly on sales and now deposit return) Seriously. It sounds like something out of the Sopranos. Why do Ontarians put up with this? No wonder so many Westerners consider Central Canada another country populated by odd people without a practical bone in their bodies.