Toronto’s Chinese bottle ladies
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Toronto’s Chinese bottle ladies
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Re: Toronto’s Chinese bottle ladies
#2I'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.
Re: Toronto’s Chinese bottle ladies
#3I'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 annoy…
> 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.
Re: Toronto’s Chinese bottle ladies
#4There are quite a few of these ladies in San Francisco too. They have enormous bags filled bottles and cans, which can sometimes stink with the remnants of old beer or soda. They ride public transport between locations with their huge bags taking up a seat next to them. Sometimes the bus driver or passengers object but mostly people just leave them alone.
They represent a testament to hard work, even in later life, that few cultures manage to exemplify quite like the Chinese seem to do.
Re: Toronto’s Chinese bottle ladies
#5I'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 annoy…
> 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.
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.
Re: Toronto’s Chinese bottle ladies
#6There are quite a few of these ladies in San Francisco too. They have enormous bags filled bottles and cans, which can sometimes stink with the remnants of old beer or soda. They ride public transport between locations with their huge bags taking up a seat next to them. Sometimes the bus driver or passengers object but mostly people just leave them alone. They represent a testament to hard work, even in later life, t…
There's one in Oakland around Lake Merritt. She's been around as long as I have (15+ years). I've always wondered where she goes at night.
Re: Toronto’s Chinese bottle ladies
#7I'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 annoy…
> 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.
Re: Toronto’s Chinese bottle ladies
#8In case you are not familiar with China, there are many such old ladies in China. Most of them in big cities are trying to dressed relatively clean and decent. There are some old ladies eat the remained food left on tables in student restaurants in universities.
Re: Toronto’s Chinese bottle ladies
#9so many people like her live in China
Re: Toronto’s Chinese bottle ladies
#10I live in a microstudio condo building in SoMA, San Francisco. Rent is ~$2000. It's always surreal to see this old lady with an asian "carrying pole" in the elevator. There's no rent control here or government sponsored housing of sorts. Either the lady makes a lot of money doing this (doubtful), or some generous person is letting her live for free (these are ~100 square feet microstudios, barely space to roommate), or she's doing this as a hobby, or I just lack imagination. (For context, we're 10 feet away from a Whole Foods, and Uber's self driving garage).