Easy plastic waste solution is staring us in the face.

[SergeStorms]

33. My sister and I...

would pick up empty bottles alongside the roads to get gas money for her car (a 1963 Ford Falcon convertible). There was a 2 cent deposit in the 60s and usually within a half hour we would find enough bottles for 2-3 gallons of gas. Of course gas was 39 cents a gallon then, so it didn't take all that many bottles. We'd pick up bottles to buy Beatles trading cards (with the rock-hard flat piece of bubblegum inside). We kids made a living picking up deposit bottles (a living for a kid, anyway).

I live in a College town, and most College kids just don't return bottles. There are people who go around town and collect all the empties ( 5 cents deposit now) and seem to do quite well subsidizing their income that way. New York has always been on top of the deposit bottle curve. I think the deposit should be 25 cents, or more. I imagine there would be a mighty roar from the beverage industry though.