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My parents collect cans for a living

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Re: My parents collect cans for a living

#11

Post by elil17 »

sien wrote: post #7

From the article "Jessica is a proud first-generation Ecuadorian-American and a second-year Percy Ellis Sutton Search for Education, Elevation, and Knowledge (SEEK) student at Baruch College majoring in business management with a minor in law and policy." Jessia is the American dream. First generation, got to college and writing like that. Lots of Americans concentrate on what is wrong with America. There is value in…

The writing in this article is incredible and I have nothing but admiration for the author and her family.

But, to me, this situation is what’s wrong with America. Why are people who are clearly so hard working struggling to get by?

Re: My parents collect cans for a living

#12

Post by iancarroll »

gs17 wrote: post #9
jandrewrogers wrote: post #4

I have not thought about collecting cans in a very long time. Decades ago you could make a decent bit of cash collecting aluminum cans. It was a common past time for poor people and undoubtedly contributed to the very high recycle rate for aluminum since it was a source of income for many people. This was widely known, so people would often go out of their way to make their aluminum trash easily available to be colle…

It's still sort of common in places with deposits on cans. In Michigan, I had a few friends growing up who did it to help their families. They got in trouble with the school on multiple occasions for digging them out of the trash, and what the school said implied it was that the school was profiting off the cans themselves. The episode of Seinfeld where they try to bring bottles to Michigan for the deposit always giv…

I've always been surprised that other states do not have bottle returns inside stores. What I used to routinely do in Michigan -- bring some cans with me to the grocery store -- I have never done in California, since you have to travel to a recycling center with limited hours.

Re: My parents collect cans for a living

#13

Post by Warrenio »

helsinkiandrew wrote: post #5

I'm guessing that the cans in this story are paid for by weight rather than the 10-20 cent deposit/refund you get where I am? How much is that worth? With the deposit, collecting cans can be a fairly lucrative side line for children and the retired - you often see people collecting cans from bus stop trashbins and at music festivals or park events there will often be people going around with large trash offering to d…

This story is set in Brooklyn, so the author's parents are likely benefiting from the five cent deposit on every beverage can sold in the state of New York [0].

Can deposits are a great idea, in my opinion. Why don't more places have them? They give people an incentive to recycle (so they get their deposit back), and if they choose to litter, whoever cleans up after them gets the money.

[0]: https://www.tax.ny.gov/bus/bev/bevcnt.htm

Re: My parents collect cans for a living

#14

Post by Ancapistani »

I remember walking the roadside with my grandparents when I was about five years old, collecting cans. It wasn’t exactly a “money for survival” type thing, but it was definitely welcome income. I had my own bag, and the cans I collected gave me enough money to buy toys and stuff.

Re: My parents collect cans for a living

#15

Post by arkis22 »

elil17 wrote: post #11
sien wrote: post #7

From the article "Jessica is a proud first-generation Ecuadorian-American and a second-year Percy Ellis Sutton Search for Education, Elevation, and Knowledge (SEEK) student at Baruch College majoring in business management with a minor in law and policy." Jessia is the American dream. First generation, got to college and writing like that. Lots of Americans concentrate on what is wrong with America. There is value in…

The writing in this article is incredible and I have nothing but admiration for the author and her family. But, to me, this situation is what’s wrong with America. Why are people who are clearly so hard working struggling to get by?

wait till you realize what's happening in the rest of the world. where people work much harder and still don't get by.

Re: My parents collect cans for a living

#16

Post by smt88 »

arkis22 wrote: post #15
elil17 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The writing in this article is incredible and I have nothing but admiration for the author and her family. But, to me, this situation is what’s wrong with America. Why are people who are clearly so hard working struggling to get by?

wait till you realize what's happening in the rest of the world. where people work much harder and still don't get by.

"It's worse somewhere else" isn't relevant to whether it's acceptable in the US.

The US has the resources to reward hard workers with financial stability. It also benefits from brain-draining other countries with this promise.

If the US continues to slide away from the "American Dream," the brains and prosperity will end up somewhere else.

Re: My parents collect cans for a living

#17

Post by bryanrasmussen »

arkis22 wrote: post #15
elil17 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The writing in this article is incredible and I have nothing but admiration for the author and her family. But, to me, this situation is what’s wrong with America. Why are people who are clearly so hard working struggling to get by?

wait till you realize what's happening in the rest of the world. where people work much harder and still don't get by.

Or, if you take another section of the rest of the world wait till you realize what's happening in the rest of the world where people work less hard and don't have it that bad.

Re: My parents collect cans for a living

#18

Post by bobthepanda »

jandrewrogers wrote: post #4

I have not thought about collecting cans in a very long time. Decades ago you could make a decent bit of cash collecting aluminum cans. It was a common past time for poor people and undoubtedly contributed to the very high recycle rate for aluminum since it was a source of income for many people. This was widely known, so people would often go out of their way to make their aluminum trash easily available to be colle…

The problem is more that the nickel deposit was never really adjusted with inflation.

A nickel in the '70s would be roughly a quarter today accounting for inflation, and there is certainly no state in the US with a deposit that high.

Re: My parents collect cans for a living

#20

Post by pcthrowaway »

helsinkiandrew wrote: post #5

I'm guessing that the cans in this story are paid for by weight rather than the 10-20 cent deposit/refund you get where I am? How much is that worth? With the deposit, collecting cans can be a fairly lucrative side line for children and the retired - you often see people collecting cans from bus stop trashbins and at music festivals or park events there will often be people going around with large trash offering to d…

At 10-20 cents deposit it's not really "lucrative" enough to be a good income for anyone, I think you're lucky if you can make more than minimum wage doing it.

We have a similar deposit where I live (Vancouver), and a few times I've collected all my cans and dropped them off at the deposit center. The centers are in inconvenient areas, and I've dropped off maybe 400 cans, which is a pretty full car load, but takes almost 2 hours with driving and sorting. So about $20/hr not counting expenses like gas, wear and tear, and the car itself (many people doing this do so without a vehicle though).

And these were cans I had collected myself at a place I was living. If you consider going from house to house and checking dumpsters for the cans, it takes a lot more time. If you have a truck and 2 people and manage to grab all the cans on collection day, you might make a bit more than minimum wage, but outside of collection day I think you'd be better off with a minimum wage job.

I suspect a lot of people doing this have other obstacles preventing them from holding a job though, which is why something they can do on their own time is worthwhile to them.

For some more context, I think McDonalds starts at $18/hr here and even that isn't really enough to afford living comfortably in Vancouver. Also, most deposits are 10 cents, but I think some larger glass containers are up to 20 cents.

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