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Here in Germany there are a number of beer brands that come in a swing top bottle:

A common swing top bottle
(picture taken from Wikipedia; copyright by Michiel1972, license GNU/GFDL)

I often heard the claim that you should leave those bottles open before returning them, because otherwise it would harm the beer producer, create additional work and cost, be bad for the environment and raise the beer costs.

Most of the time when you ask people claiming such things, they will tell you that in order to clean and reuse these bottles, the lids have to be open. If the lids are not open, they have to be opened manually and the company has to hire additional workers for that in their factory.

I find this very hard to believe, especially considering the massive amounts of bottles that are returned for refilling every day. The factories surely are able to open those bottles automatically if this is necessary for cleaning and refilling them.

Is there any truth to the claim that you should leave the bottles open?

Oddthinking
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magnattic
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    If closing them creates jobs wouldnt you want to close them? – Chad Apr 02 '12 at 15:39
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    Not if I pay for them indirectly. ;) – magnattic Apr 02 '12 at 15:58
  • AFAIK you shouldn't close the bottle, because the rubber will go dry if there is no liquid inside and the mechanical stress will then harm him, forcing the manufacturer to replace the rubbers more often => higher costs. Also even if the bottle can be opened automatically this will still increase the time needed to refill the bottle => lower rates => less money. This might be only a small impact but still a good reason to print a note on these bottles to leave them open. – Martin Scharrer Apr 02 '12 at 17:56
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    Years back these bottles (brown, heavy ones), would be opened and cleaned with caustic soda. But nowadays, these bottles are much lighter, and they are recycled (melted) rather than cleaned, so it shouldn't really matter. It's been argued that melting has lesser environmental impact than washing. – vartec Apr 02 '12 at 20:31
  • I guess one reason would be hygiene: if you close the bottle, then you'll get a lot more mildew. – Hendrik Vogt Apr 03 '12 at 10:46
  • Can you provide more evidence for the claim that the bottles should be left open before returning them? – Sonny Ordell Apr 03 '12 at 11:24
  • @SonnyOrdell [The german Wikipedia mentions this](http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flensburger_Brauerei): "Dem Hinweis auf der Flasche nach sollen die leeren Bügelflaschen nach Gebrauch nicht wieder verschlossen werden, da diese sonst vor dem Spülvorgang wieder geöffnet werden müssen. Dieser Arbeitsschritt wird von Mitarbeitern der Werkstatt für behinderte Menschen Kappeln geleistet." – Mad Scientist Apr 03 '12 at 12:10
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    @Fabian then maybe adding a translation of that into the question would be appropriate? – Sonny Ordell Apr 04 '12 at 00:07
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    @SonnyOrdell: The text translates to: "According to the note on the bottle the empty swing top bottles should not be closed after use, because then they have to be opened again for cleaning. This work step is being performed by employees of the sheltered workshop Kappeln." I am not sure including this in the question makes much sense, it could be appropiate as part of an answer, but not on its own. (Also there are no citations for that part.) – magnattic Apr 12 '15 at 10:55

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