The Beer Bottles

For every beer/soda you buy in the grocery story you pay a €.10/.25 deposit. Up until now we have been collecting these bottles in boxes in our kitchen, unaware of what to do with them. The expat literature says something vague about redeeming them for money, but does not give exact instructions on how to do this. The city website evens gives instructions for what types of glass are to be recycled, but does not give any locations to recycle the bottles.

But today the mystery was solved. (Thanks to Katie!) We simply returned them to the grocery store, where there is a bottle bank in the back. You place your bottle on the conveyor belt, it weighs the bottle (or something), determines how much the bottle is worth, and credits you the amount. When you have fed all your bottles to the machine it prints out a ticket that you then take to register for a credit on your groceries or a cash return.Voila! More money to buy more beer!

"Nine thousand, nine hundred and ninety-nine bottle and cans in the trunk, nine thousand, nine hundred and ninety-nine bottles and cans.
At ten cents a bottle and ten cents a can, we're pulling in five hundred dollars a man.
Nine thousand, nine hundred and ninety-eight bottle and cans in the trunk, nine thousand, nine hundred and ninety-eight bottles and cans.
We fill up with gas, we count up our cash!!..."
-- Kramer/Newman from Seinfeld