Pics from the past | Collecting bottles

I introduced this collection to my own children when aluminium cans could be sold to earn some dollars. We lived close to Deakin Reserve, and during the GVFL finals, it was very profitable to collect the cans left by all the spectators around the ground, squash them and take them to the ‘can man’.

These days, I save our cans and bottles for my local grandkids, who collect them to cash them in for 10c each at the ‘Return and Earn Scheme’ depot in Wagga Wagga. It’s much easier now as they can cash them in at Shepparton’s Foott Waste ‘Container Deposit Scheme’.

In the past, ‘bottle drives’ were popular for community organisations and schools to raise money for needy projects. Some of our local bottle-Os in the early years were E.J.W. Peach and H. Pinner, both in Fryers St, Ian Fitzsimmons’ G.V. Recycling and in later years at Fletcher Metals in Old Dookie Rd, now known as Future Recycling.

Facebook comments:

Geoff Liz Laidlaw: You cashed beer bottles in at Jimmy McGregor’s yard. l think a shilling per dozen.

Merv Walker: Remember the Scout’s bottle depot at the old tip in Riverview Rd?

Glenda Allen: We used to collect bottles and sell them to get money so we could go to the Shepparton Show in the 1950s.

Heather Lees: That’s my sister Rhonda in the photo with the white pram collecting bottles.

Leigh Monk: In the ’70s, we’d always keep an eye out for Coke or Fanta bottles. Finding a few bottles was like finding gold. At 5c per bottle, if we found a couple, it would be enough for a Choc Wedge and a small Coke! Fifty years on, and they’re now worth 10 cents. Just ridiculous! The deposit on a bottle should be at least $1. How many bottles would be thrown away or lying along the roadside if that was the case? About zero!

Shane L.J. Ryan: We took our cans and bottles to the recycling place in Ashenden St next to the Orange Lodge.

Anthony Looby: I used to do that. They were two bottles for a penny, or it means two bottles for a cent nowadays.

Annita Rollinson: I remember kids asking if they could have your bottle when you finished and hanging around until you had finished it.

Peter Szmola: It was big when I was a kid, too. Shops had to mark the bottoms of the bottles with an X to make sure we didn’t jump the fence, nick the bottle and sell the bottle back again. It was 10c for small bottles and 20c for big bottles.

Ian Chapple: Ten pence halfpenny a dozen for long necks when I was a kid. Threepence for milk bottles.