# bottles



## dcrnbrd (Jan 19, 2008)

Has anyone tried getting bottles from restaurants such as olive garden or one that sells a good bit of wine?


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## Wade E (Jan 19, 2008)

Some people do this and have good luck. Some restaurants dont want to bother with keeping them separate as they usually toss them in the dumpster so its all in how you ask and if they are willing. I get a good deal at my dump as I ask them to save me some and i give them a few bottles and usually they save e 100 or so and I have to ask them to stop.


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## jobe05 (Jan 19, 2008)

The Olive Garden around here won't save you their bottles, and if they ad an empty or two while your there, they still won't give them to you........

They are the nice big, 1.5 liter i would guess, but they have a big rounded bottom. I don't bottle that many bigger bottles but a couple of them would look good on my shelves................

I'm not above dumpster diven at night if I have to..............


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## dcrnbrd (Jan 19, 2008)

I think this is recycling at its finest. All these places are doing is throwing them away. Thanks for the input I am going to try a couple of local places, but I live out here in the country. The alchohol sold around here come in mason jars.


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## NorthernWinos (Jan 19, 2008)

Does anyone ever put wine in mason jars????


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## dcrnbrd (Jan 19, 2008)

This isnt wine in mason jars it is clear courage, firewater.


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## pelican (Jan 19, 2008)

We live out in the country too , but we do gather empties from a couple of restaurant/bar places where friends or family work. 

Dumpster diving is a bit easier to face if it's a recycle bin full of glass items ~ just mind the broken glass, gloves are not a bad idea. 

And if you do find someplace with a recyclables bin out back that is willing to let you "harvest" bottles from, try to find out what the schedule if for those bins to be emptied. Timing your visit for the day before the waste management pickup is a lot better than showing just afterwards.


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## jobe05 (Jan 19, 2008)

Northern Winos said:


> Does anyone ever put wine in mason jars????



Yup............. But it's my drinking glass.....




*Edited by: jobe05 *


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## Wade E (Jan 19, 2008)

Also check out local wineries that do wine tastings as most are not allowed by law to reuse wine bottles and they usually will give them to home brewers.


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## dcrnbrd (Jan 19, 2008)

Thanks wade I did not know that.


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## scubaman2151 (Jan 19, 2008)

I have had tons of luck getting bottles from local resturants.


I get a ton from Bravos and some of the small family resturants around me. You just have to ask, but the downside is most places dont like to keep the bottles more then a couple days. So that means stopping at the stores multiple times per week. I have also found that the Olive Garden where I live wont save me thier bottles.


Scuba


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## dcrnbrd (Jan 20, 2008)

Ok I drove to the local recycling center today and wow there is a lot of bottles to be had. The regular worker there told me he would save whatever I wanted for a couple bottles of wine. So I think I might have my bottle issue taken care of. I got 5 gallon bottles today. Thanks for that tip.


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## Wade E (Jan 20, 2008)

Great job on saving the Earth!


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## mississippi mud (Jan 20, 2008)

Great info,I never would have thought of the dumpor the recycling center.I was going to try to drink 112 bottles ever 28 days to keep up .


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## moose (Jan 21, 2008)

That's what I did yesterday also. After reading this post, took a hike and went to the local recycling center and lo and behold, I found a few bottles. I'm going to start checking there every few days now.


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## Grant (Jan 21, 2008)

Best deal we ever got was helping local ball team with Bottle drive, ending up with 25 dozen wine bottles


Grant


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## NorthernWinos (Jan 22, 2008)

We live up in the boonies....Ifwe werein need of empty beer cans we'd have a windfall....


As for wine bottles....we have some Dear Friends who have been very obliging getting us bottles from a Supper Club near them...Sometimes the waitresses save them...sometimes our Dear Friends go through the recycling bins at the restaurant and load up...Now that's Good Friends who dumpster dive for you!!!


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## tcb54 (Jan 23, 2008)

Northern Winos said:


> We live up in the boonies....Ifwe werein need of empty beer cans we'd have a windfall....




I love it!!!


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## bozz (Jan 23, 2008)

as always I'm a day late and a dollar short. A lady I know just gave away 5-5gal andtwo 6 or7gallon carboys. She didn't know I was learning to make wine. Well, at least she didn't throw them out.


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## Steve in KC (Jan 25, 2008)

I play up the 'save the environment' aspect as where I live, there are no private or municipal recycling programs that take glass because of the cost and distance to the nearest glass recycling facility.


Befriend local wine bars, wine botiques, et al. Focus your energies on places that do a LOT of tastings and yes, dumpster dive if you must. 


I can afford new bottles, but why should I buy them when they're just going to the landfill?


On a good week, I can score 4 cases worth of usable bottles. I don't use screw tops or ones with non standard shapes/sizes. I take them home, clean them up and then match them by bottle type, size and color. Takes more time doing it this way, but it's something I enjoy while the primary's are bubbling away.


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