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Originally posted by ShayneT:
New York had a bottle bill since 1982 giving 5 cents per bottle that is redeemed. Of course, no telling if Metropolis had a similar bill, and even if it did, Charlie probably didn't Clark to have to lug around that much weight in bottles walking across town.
If Metropolis is based on New York, then it probably would have such a bill.

Several states currently have a law where 5 cents is tacked onto the price of a drink in a plastic bottle in order to encourage people to turn it in for recycling and get their 5 cents back. I don't know if any such law existed in the early 80's, though. (For that matter, I can't remember if plastic drink bottles were around in the early 80's, other than the gallon jugs of milk and juice.)

"Oh, you can’t help that," said the Cat: "we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad."
"How do you know I’m mad?" said Alice.
"You must be," said the Cat, "or you wouldn’t have come here.”

- Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland