Getting "Rid Of" your Aluminum Cans

[MossRoad]

Portland has many many of those can machines. Portland Oregon. Usually in grocery store parking lots.

Take a minute and watch. You could write a dissertation on the aluminum can culture.

Here's where politics screws it up again. Two big industries in Oregon are wine and bottled water. Coincidentally those are the only 2 beverage container types that do not have deposits. Funny how that works.

The end result is, the street people go thru your garbage and take everything but the wine and water bottles.

Some residents separate them before they put them out, makes for less mess that way.

In our old neighborhood back in the 80's and early 90's, before mandatory recycling, we had the "aluminum dude" that would come down the alley the day before trash pickup, open everyone's trash cans, take out their garbage bags, carefully open them up, go through them, pull all the aluminum, close them up, put everything back nice and neat and move on to the next. I'd say hello to him once in a while. Eventually, we just put our aluminum in a separate container for him. Just an old dude making some scrap money.

One day I saw him in the park across the street from our house getting attacked by an old woman with a shovel. She was trying to move him out of "her" park. He just stood there and took the blows to his back. Whack! Whack! I called the cops and they hauled her off. Yikes!

 

[stuckmotor]

We have recycling pickup near town and drop off stations around the county for rural folks.

 

[Oaktree]

Somehow beverage container deposits should be based on income. Too many well-off people around here just thow them in the trash. Shouldn't be hard with everyone carrying cell phones. You make 100 grand, you pay 5.00 deposit a can.

Maybe there should be deposits on ALL containers. HEFTY deposits. No big deal, you get it back, if you do the right thing.

Don't give them any ideas. Waay too many BS laws already, don't need any more.

 

[Citydude]

Here, we pay $9.00 a month ( voluntary) to have curb side pickup once a week. Cardboard, plastic, glass and cans. Aside from reusing materials , it reduces the amount of trash in the landfill. Also, it provides jobs.

 

[shooterdon]

Somehow beverage container deposits should be based on income. Too many well-off people around here just thow them in the trash. Shouldn't be hard with everyone carrying cell phones. You make 100 grand, you pay 5.00 deposit a can.

One reason I left Canada was this kind of socialist thinking. Here is what I would do.

Pay my poorer friends $2 a can and then turn them in for $5 each. They make $1.90 a can (19 times their "investment"). I make $3/can with little or no effort. Heck, the poorer people can dump the pop down the drain or drink beer for free if they get $2/can from me.

I suppose, Big Brother could monitor every can deposit an individual makes and limit returns to that amount. Might need an exclusion for poorer people who pick up cans to earn a few extra dollars or they would no longer be able to return more cans than they buy. With no incentive, those discarded cans would never get picked up.

 

[Mat4644]

At the big colleges the kids living off campus just throw the cans in the front yard. Roving bums pick them up for drug money. Synergy at the highest level.

 

[Oaktree]

One reason I left Canada was this kind of socialist thinking. Here is what I would do.

Pay my poorer friends $2 a can and then turn them in for $5 each. They make $1.90 a can (19 times their "investment"). I make $3/can with little or no effort. Heck, the poorer people can dump the pop down the drain or drink beer for free if they get $2/can from me.

I suppose, Big Brother could monitor every can deposit an individual makes and limit returns to that amount. Might need an exclusion for poorer people who pick up cans to earn a few extra dollars or they would no longer be able to return more cans than they buy. With no incentive, those discarded cans would never get picked up.

Not quite sure I "get" your plan.
OTOH, this means the state gets to hire more bureaucrats to administer this nightmare. We need less big brother, not more.

 

[Vaquero]

We save ours. Drop them off at the animal shelter.
They use the recycle money to buy dog and cat food.

 

[flyerdan]

Oregon did add water bottles to the deposit program, sparkling cider bottles are a dime as well, but as far as I know no wine or liquor bottles are subject to deposit fees, as are the flavored syrups for coffee, which have recently switched to plastic from glass.

I get the math behind shooterdon's plan; it's kind of a welfare scam, like getting someone to buy groceries on their gibbs-me-dat card and paying them half the value in cash so they can go back and buy their liquor and smokes, which aren't currently allowed on the card.

 

[fidowanttobe]

We save ours. Drop them off at the animal shelter.
They use the recycle money to buy dog and cat food.

You sir are a noble man.
I will check to see if I can do the same. Thank You.