Blessed by the Potato

Good idea: Set up a battery deposit-return system to ensure that the ubiquitous toxic devils are returned and recycled properly, rather than going into a landfill. Particularly handy when properly recycling them is a major pain in the ass (no blue box collection; return depot is not technically in the city where I live, nor open at convenient times) — thankfully some retailers (e.g.: Best Buy) are starting to accept batteries and electronics for recycling. While we’re at it, let’s bump that beer bottle deposit up by an order of magnitude.

Bad idea: Set up a battery deposit-return system for Toronto only. This isn’t like driving hours to take your giant load of pop cans to Quebec for a nickel each: there are a lot of people who live really close to Toronto. And while Toronto is a big city, I don’t think it’s quite big enough to warrant making the battery manufacturers stamp “return for refund in Toronto” on the batteries destined for the Toronto market, but not the 905 market. As if Toronto didn’t have enough budget troubles…