Offline Earnings: Do you have Vending Machines GIVING YOU MONEY where you are?

They do not tend to have the kerbside collections here where everyone dumps all their major stuff out front of their house. Well not on the Gold Coast anyway. Probably due to the city being a tourist destination, which is another reason the Gold Coast Council do not charge for dumping household rubbish at the tip. Copper hey! Hmm...I might have to go through all the older neighbourhoods, turning off their water and cutting their taps out with a hacksaw!

Yes, we get paid ten cents for every drink container sold here, be it plastic, glass or cardboard, since 1977. I've heard that Victoria introduced a similar scheme twice fairly recently & rescinded it twice just as soon as it began, before they could see any real benefits from it. I was talking to my mother-in-law about this & she said that even when they were kids, they would cash in cans to get enough money for a ticket to the Brisbane Ekka (exhibition? - equivalent to the Royal Show elsewhere). I think the legislation for introduction is on the table in every state & the Northern Territory too, but there just seems to be no urgency or driving need to be bothered with it. I think a federal scheme has also been drafted, but maybe they have more "pressing issues". How about we park some right next to the border & you can pop some in there next time you're traveling? I hear there's a huge fine if you're caught trying to recycle drink containers here that were bought from another state. **Legal disclaimer**. It's also a good idea to cut down the queues at our recycling centres, so more people like me can get our scrap metal money faster, with fewer emissions from idling the car whilst waiting in line. It's currently in use, so I hope it takes off here.

I hear they do have scrap metal recycling up there - my father-in-law is right into it, but not as much as what he used to be. We plan to do kerbside clean-ups together when I get up there & strip the footpaths bare! Aluminium down here pays about a dollar a kilogram now, of which there are about a dozen different grades. Plastic coated wire pays about $2.50 a kilogram. Brass is still at about four dollars a kilogram. Copper is the big money spinner now at $7.50 a kilogram for the top "mil-berry" grade. That must be the one Seinfeld episode I do not recall seeing! I'm sure interstate truck drivers take cans & bottles interstate as part of what they do. I'm waiting for scrap metal vending machines!

Perhaps we could export some? Would you find a use for Australian Dollars over there? I imagine there would be very long queues day & night in your country. Do you mean people need the money or that there are drink containers lying around everywhere over there? Thank you for your interest.

You bet..about long queues though they are there even otherwise thanks to the population. People everywhere in the world need money, my countrymen and women (including me) are no exception. :) But the bigger problem is the trash all around. There was an attempt to control this trash by putting up nice dustbins at certain distance. Needless to say it failed miserably. Perhaps cash incentives for trash is a better way to bring in some discipline.

The government actually profits from it down here too! Recycling drink containers with the cash incentive was introduced down here in 1977 & is very successful. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Container_deposit_legislation I've just found another press release on it: http://www.bottlebill.org/news/articles/2010/AU-6-23-SouthAustraliaDebuts-pr.htm Money talks, eh?