A Cuban resident in the United States became the star of a viral video as he reacted with indignation to an unexpected additional charge at a Walmart checkout: the mandatory deposit for soda cans, a legal charge he was unaware of and interpreted as an abuse.
Omar Alfonso (@omar.alfonso91) captured the moment in front of the cash register y lo publicó en TikTok el 11 de mayo. En el video, muestra el recibo y explica que, además de los $5.24 del pan y los $8.42 de otros productos, le están cobrando $1.20 additional por concepto de depósito de envases.
“Let’s pass this on, which is eight forty-two plus one twenty from the deposit; this doesn’t even have a name anymore,” says Omar while pointing the camera at the receipt.
What puzzled him the most was that this money was supposedly going to be returned if he came back with the empty cans. "Who is going to come here for ten kilos of paper?" he asked, using the Cuban expression to refer to cents. "You're selling me soda, charge me the full price."
The video concluded with a phrase that became the most shared part of the clip: "This is crazy, man. They even charge you for the air you breathe."
What Omar experienced as abuse is, in fact, a completely legal practice. It refers to the container deposit system known as the bottle bill, which is in effect in at least 10 U.S. states: California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, Oregon, and Vermont.
Under this system, when purchasing beverages in cans or bottles, the consumer pays an additional deposit—usually between five and ten cents per container—which is refunded upon returning the empty containers at an authorized point. The aim is to encourage recycling and reduce packaging waste. The charge appears on the receipt as "deposit" or "bottle deposit."
For someone who is not familiar with the system, the charges may seem arbitrary, especially if no one explains them at the time of purchase. That gap in information is exactly what Omar captured in his video.
The reaction of this Cuban is part of a trend of compatriots who have recently arrived and are documenting on social media their cultural shock with the American consumer system, from the astonishment at the abundance in supermarkets to the confusion over local regulations.
The expression "this is the latest from the cartoons" —a Cuban idiom that equates to "the height" or "the most absurd"— immediately resonated with the audience of the Cuban community in exile, who recognized the protagonist's frustration in facing something that was incomprehensible to him.
The container deposit system has been in place in the U.S. since the 1970s. Michigan was the first state to adopt it in 1976, and today it has one of the highest deposits in the country: ten cents per can, double what New York charges, where the fee is five cents per eligible container.
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