4 ms·

I'm sure this is a common phenomena anywhere with bottle deposits, but everywhere I've lived in the GTA has had at least one of these people. They can be polar

by DKnoll 10y ago

I'm sure this is a common phenomena anywhere with bottle deposits, but everywhere I've lived in the GTA has had at least one of these people. They can be polarizing. Some hate them, some are indifferent, others appreciate them. To the city they're a nuisance, because they take recycling money out of the pocket of the municipality. To some residents they're considered a threat or an annoyance, afraid of theft or annoyed by noise in the middle of the night. Personally, I appreciate these people. I will collect my bottles and leave them out on a discarded table that sits in an alley on the route of the bottle collecter currently informally serving my neighbourhood. I live in a downtown area known as a party spot, so he does reduce a fair amount of litter by collecting the empties discarded just about everywhere. It's reassuring that somebody sober is out on the streets and alleys at night. If somebody passes out or is otherwise in trouble, he may be the only person that would discover them.

Scoundreller 10y ago
> To the city they're a nuisance, because they take recycling money out of the pocket of the municipality. For the metal cans, maybe, but minimally for the bottles. Scrap glass isn't worth much, but the ones the bottle ladies' returns get refilled, which is far less energy-intensive than recycling.
- jeffhiggins 10y ago
  Wouldn't the city be able to collect the bottle deposit too? I'm assuming 5-15 cents each is much more than they'd get by recycling the glass.
  - ams6110 10y ago
    The whole point of bottle deposit laws is to motivate individuals to return the bottles, so the municipality doesn't have to deal with it.
    - gbog 10y ago
      To me it's so much better if some people can take care of this specialized and noble task. I'd hope the municipality would make it more convenient for recyclers to do their work and get more income from it.
  - Scoundreller 10y ago
    All glass (deposit or not) goes into one smashy-smashy pile, so the city loses the deposit value.
dm3730 10y ago
> because they take recycling money out of the pocket of the municipality I was curious if the municipality is doing a good job of recycling but couldn't find numbers. Like for the city of Santa Clara, what percentage of the recycling is brought in by the municipality. I kind of think it is probably lower than that brought in by competitive commercial entities. I did find: "Recycling rates were up for all material types: aluminum rose to 85 percent, compared to 83 percent between January and June 2007; glass rose to 79 percent from 71; and the most common plastic, No. 1 PET, increased to 63 percent from 58." None of the numbers are above 90, and PET is about 60% so having more people like this who bring these numbers up is a good thing.
gumby 10y ago
The nuisance factor for me when I lived in Boston (25 years ago; hopefully recycling has improved since then) was that homeless people would tear open the rubbish bags looking for containers that could be turned in for cash. If even a few people were lazy and threw deposit containers in the trash, the rest of us paid the price.
- lovich 10y ago
  Where I've lived in boston none of the bottle collectors would do that for fear of getting the cops called. They did dig through the recycling bins, but everything would be back on the bin by the time they were done
  - lostlogin 10y ago
    And if it's anything like where I am, half the street is wide awake from the noise.
    - lovich 10y ago
      No actually, they kept to daylight hours and we're generally friendly and open to conversation. I had more issues from the town's construction. They wouldn't necessarily start construction at 6 am but they would certainly show up to the site and start yelling back and forth while noisily getting their equipment out of their cars
- tokai 10y ago
  There is an easy fix for that problem. http://www.mx.dk/diashow/10018/10018-nxKHn_DMNPJM9YkDieCiyQ.jpg http://www.mx.dk/diashow/10018/10018-nxKHn_DMNPJM9YkDieCiyQ....

by DKnoll 10y ago

Scoundreller 10y ago

> To the city they're a nuisance, because they take recycling money out of the pocket of the municipality. For the metal cans, maybe, but minimally for the bottles. Scrap glass isn't worth much, but the ones the bottle ladies' returns get refilled, which is far less energy-intensive than recycling.

jeffhiggins 10y ago
Wouldn't the city be able to collect the bottle deposit too? I'm assuming 5-15 cents each is much more than they'd get by recycling the glass.
- ams6110 10y ago
  The whole point of bottle deposit laws is to motivate individuals to return the bottles, so the municipality doesn't have to deal with it.
  - gbog 10y ago
    To me it's so much better if some people can take care of this specialized and noble task. I'd hope the municipality would make it more convenient for recyclers to do their work and get more income from it.
- Scoundreller 10y ago
  All glass (deposit or not) goes into one smashy-smashy pile, so the city loses the deposit value.

dm3730 10y ago

> because they take recycling money out of the pocket of the municipality I was curious if the municipality is doing a good job of recycling but couldn't find numbers. Like for the city of Santa Clara, what percentage of the recycling is brought in by the municipality. I kind of think it is probably lower than that brought in by competitive commercial entities. I did find: "Recycling rates were up for all material types: aluminum rose to 85 percent, compared to 83 percent between January and June 2007; glass rose to 79 percent from 71; and the most common plastic, No. 1 PET, increased to 63 percent from 58." None of the numbers are above 90, and PET is about 60% so having more people like this who bring these numbers up is a good thing.

gumby 10y ago

The nuisance factor for me when I lived in Boston (25 years ago; hopefully recycling has improved since then) was that homeless people would tear open the rubbish bags looking for containers that could be turned in for cash. If even a few people were lazy and threw deposit containers in the trash, the rest of us paid the price.

lovich 10y ago
Where I've lived in boston none of the bottle collectors would do that for fear of getting the cops called. They did dig through the recycling bins, but everything would be back on the bin by the time they were done
- lostlogin 10y ago
  And if it's anything like where I am, half the street is wide awake from the noise.
  - lovich 10y ago
    No actually, they kept to daylight hours and we're generally friendly and open to conversation. I had more issues from the town's construction. They wouldn't necessarily start construction at 6 am but they would certainly show up to the site and start yelling back and forth while noisily getting their equipment out of their cars
tokai 10y ago
There is an easy fix for that problem. http://www.mx.dk/diashow/10018/10018-nxKHn_DMNPJM9YkDieCiyQ.jpg http://www.mx.dk/diashow/10018/10018-nxKHn_DMNPJM9YkDieCiyQ....