reines Leergut

12:23 Sep 23, 2011 

My first thought was also that it isn't rein in the sense of "clean", but of "purely" or "only". That would also make sense given the fact it can be "Voll oder Leer". "Leer" is definitely empty, but "rein" is ambiguous at the best of times.
And what a coincidence, now I'm translating about "Reiner Binnenverkehr" :)

12:46 Aug 3, 2010 

Hi Kathi, sorry, in Germany you cannot return empties if they are still full or half full ... single plastic bottles are squashed immediately by the machine and single glass bottles need to be fed bottom first - just imagine that mess, liquid being whirled around! If you're lucky you can return cases (crates) with bottles still half full (but who would do that? argh! ... and anyway, people are far too greedy to waste, let's say, spirits ...)

12:40 Aug 3, 2010 

As a student, I worked in a factory over the summer, which produced baby juices, all in glass bottles. All returned empties were washed and sterilized for re-usage. Some of the empties were still half full...some empties were completely full (their expiration date was up and that's why they were returned. But they still fell under the category of "empties" even if they were not empty.

12:36 Aug 3, 2010 

thought about that and believe it should read correctly: ob dieses als Leergut oder VERSEHENTLICH als Vollgut gescannt ... wurde (that makes sense!)

12:30 Aug 3, 2010 

agree with Kathi - "Leergut" is empties, that's correct, and "rein" does not refer to clean in this context, meaning something like "empties only" - although the rest of the sentence does not make sense: reines Leergut ... ob VOLL oder Leer ... (Leergut is always empty, no questions asked) - but mind you: Voll oder Leer here is the abbreviation for Vollgut or Leergut respectively ... (see next entry)

22:23 Aug 2, 2010 

Hi Joanne, I really don't think that "rein" refers to "clean" here. I think it is more in the context of all-empties. Please compare the offered translation for "reine Entscheidung" here - I know it is not the term you look for, but it gives you an idea http://www.linguee.de/search?direction=auto&query=reine Ents...