What kind of hourly salary can you earn from collecting cans? I always assumed it was well below minimum wage.
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My parents collect cans for a living
131–140 of 419 posts
Re: My parents collect cans for a living
#132Earlier quoted context omitted.
For whatever reason HN nerds love stories about recycling even though this family is clearly poor and not making good financial decisions.
Ah yes the good old, being poor is a character flaw. There's plenty of evidence that being poor is primarily due to nothing else but lack of money. But the rich/middle class love to feel superior by saying people are poor because of bad financial decisions.
I'm not saying it's a character flaw. I'm saying they held onto a job that wasn't optimal based on their other available options. They could have been middle class had they chosen another job. Down right negligent honestly since they clearly had no healthcare that entire time. One illness could have thrown them on the street.
Re: My parents collect cans for a living
#133I used to collect cans and bottles. Nowadays I don't know where you'd even take them to redeem them; there isn't enough money in it to justify paying sonebody to sort them; an entire truckload of cans wouldn't pay for the gasoline to drive them to the store.
Same. We used to collect cans, and whenever we filled up several trash bags worth, we'd drive to a can return machine in a parking lot. We'd press a button on the machine, and it would come to life. We'd then dump cans in a funnel, and coins would come out of a coin return. Now that I think about it, even when I was a kid, I don't recall ever seeing another machine like it.
Edit, it looked like this:
https://old.reddit.com/r/Dallas/comments/ljr0sa/where_can_i_...
Re: My parents collect cans for a living
#134Earlier quoted context omitted.
Saw that at your neighboor's in Copenhagen, and after the first outrage of paying +50cts per drink, I understood that I was seeing a glimpse the future… If littering is equivalent to throwing money, you simply won't do it. Weird side-effect: homeless people might ask for your empty bottle and do the collection. Not sure how I feel about that though…
> Weird side-effect: homeless people might ask for your empty bottle and do the collection. Not sure how I feel about that though… It becomes a respectful cooperation. When you party in a park, you place your containers next to a trash so a homeless can pick it up without searching the trash. They basically help you partying hard (and not caring/carrying about the bottles) and earn (by hard work) a bit of money.
I remember asking a German friend why people were leaving the bottles on top of the bins when we went to a football match.
Growing up in Scotland collecting Irn Bru bottles was something you could do for "sweetie" money. I was disappointed the last time I looked to find out that they have now decommissioned their bottle cleaning plant. Apparently conventional recycling has resulted in the rate of return being too low.
Re: My parents collect cans for a living
#135Earlier quoted context omitted.
Saw that at your neighboor's in Copenhagen, and after the first outrage of paying +50cts per drink, I understood that I was seeing a glimpse the future… If littering is equivalent to throwing money, you simply won't do it. Weird side-effect: homeless people might ask for your empty bottle and do the collection. Not sure how I feel about that though…
> Weird side-effect: homeless people might ask for your empty bottle and do the collection. Not sure how I feel about that though… It becomes a respectful cooperation. When you party in a park, you place your containers next to a trash so a homeless can pick it up without searching the trash. They basically help you partying hard (and not caring/carrying about the bottles) and earn (by hard work) a bit of money.
In Germany -at least the cities I'm familiar with- everyone places their cans and bottles next to the trash-can.
German bottles often have "pfand gehört daneben" (Deposits belong next to it) printed on them[0]. And some cities even placed special holders alongside the trashcans[1].
Like with many things, Germans have made deposit collection into an efficient job.
[0] https://kaiserkiwi.de/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/fritz-kola-... [1] https://www.linksfraktion-hannover.de/fileadmin/fraktionhann...
Re: My parents collect cans for a living
#136This is why I have always thought that can and bottle deposit prices should keep up with inflation: to give the collectors a living wage.
> to give the collectors a living wage.
Why would this be a goal?
Re: My parents collect cans for a living
#137From 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…
> Jessia is the American dream. She's the one who made it, unlike thousands of others, who worked equally hard, and didn't. No family should have both parents working 12 hours a day just to survive, period.
Not only that, but when she graduates, she might not be able to get a well-paying job and subsequently find a home. She may well be living below the level of a factory worker from the 60s.
Re: My parents collect cans for a living
#138Re: My parents collect cans for a living
#139Earlier quoted context omitted.
Here in Norway a half litre or smaller container has a deposit of 2 kr, bigger containers are 3 kr (22 and 33 US cent respectively). But it isn't the size of the deposit that drives the return rate (95% or more here in Norway) it is the ease of doing it. Here all shops that sell such goods are required to accept the containers in return even if they were not purchased in that shop and even if they are of a different…
Saw that at your neighboor's in Copenhagen, and after the first outrage of paying +50cts per drink, I understood that I was seeing a glimpse the future… If littering is equivalent to throwing money, you simply won't do it. Weird side-effect: homeless people might ask for your empty bottle and do the collection. Not sure how I feel about that though…
> If littering is equivalent to throwing money, you simply won't do it.
I have learnt that when organising events at work (sponsored by workplace), you have to charge people. Any amount like €5, its two cups of coffee but turn-up rate is in high 90% of people that paid upfront. Without charging any money its 50-60%
The number of people that sign up were pretty similar, so I hazard a guess that risk aversion was at play.
Its a powerful tool even if you know about it.
Re: My parents collect cans for a living
#140Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Weird side-effect: homeless people might ask for your empty bottle and do the collection. Not sure how I feel about that though… It becomes a respectful cooperation. When you party in a park, you place your containers next to a trash so a homeless can pick it up without searching the trash. They basically help you partying hard (and not caring/carrying about the bottles) and earn (by hard work) a bit of money.
I don't know about "respectful" for both parties. Bottle collectors trying to take/steal not yet empty bottles and cans has become more of a rule than an exception in parks in central Stockholm. I'm still very much in favour of container deposit but I'm growing really tired of forceful collecting.
The people you're referring to are likely not the same kind of people who collect bottles in other countries.
My friend has this jokish ticks screaming out "Min pant"(roughly translates into "my cans) when we're a bit drunk, referring to this exact problem. It's inappropriate to go into further detail than to say he's not making fun of any Swedes.
It's one of the downsides of free movement within the EU when you're a country that's built on assuming most people will do right for themselves, the it breaks.