My parents collect cans for a living • Hacker News Board

Re: My parents collect cans for a living

#301

Post by selimthegrim » Mon, Dec 20, 2021, 4:21 PM UTC

dangus wrote: post #286

lotsofpulp wrote: post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because it obfuscates costs and creates complexity that can cause more issues, such as people raiding garbage bins. It would be more straightforward if government paid for cleanup of litter and it becomes a part of the spending budget where the amount of spend can be tracked. And teach children not to litter and cultivate that sense of responsibility for one’s environment. And prosecute littering.

In the end, the deposit is a simpler and low-cost low-effort solution. It's probably the best example of a policy where a small change to law can impact behavior greatly. If you go to a city with a plastic bag tax, you'll notice that far fewer people are using plastic bags. Cashiers won't automatically drop a single item into a bag, they'll ask if you need them and even when they do, they'll use fewer bags. The funny…

There was an app called GymPact that charged you (an amount you determined) if you didn’t go to the gym as you agreed - I think it went as rewards to the people who did show

Re: My parents collect cans for a living

#302

Post by me_me_mu_mu » Mon, Dec 20, 2021, 4:21 PM UTC

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 only people complaining are rich privileged people who get into top colleges because of daddy and mommy. Source: know a bunch of such people.

Good thing about wealth generation is ultimately these low level buffoons get weeded out, they will never break past the low millions. They never knew real hardship so they can only go so far.

Re: My parents collect cans for a living

#303

Post by swlp21 » Mon, Dec 20, 2021, 4:22 PM UTC

Aissen wrote: post #105

kwhitefoot wrote: post #88

Earlier 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…

> homeless people might ask for your empty bottle and do the collection

I lived in Alberta 10 years ago and this was totally a thing. One homeless guy hung around the apartment and if you were carrying drink containers he would come and say "Can I take them to the store for you?". Of course, he meant could he get the deposit money on them too. He would hang around until he could fill two or three large garbage bags then head off to the return center to collect the deposit money. In all the time I lived there, I never found out where the actual return center was as I never needed to. The few $ involved was no loss to me (or anyone else in the apartment) but went towards the homeless guy being able to buy food. Never once did he seem drunk or high so he really did seem to be doing it to get food. I would see other guys like him walking along the street with garbage bags of bottles too, so it appeared to be the thing they did and it seemed to work out for everyone as I spoke to lots of people who said they also had a local homeless person that did the same at their apartments.

Re: My parents collect cans for a living

#304

Post by jimbokun » Mon, Dec 20, 2021, 4:22 PM UTC

smt88 wrote: post #224

jimbokun wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The US has the resources to reward hard workers with financial stability. Most hard workers in the U.S. are rewarded with financial stability. Not everyone, but enough that people still flock here from other countries where that's less true. > It also benefits from brain-draining other countries with this promise. Well gee, I guess the U.S. should stop being such a great place for immigrants, so talented people sto…

> Most hard workers in the U.S. are rewarded with financial stability. Not everyone, but enough that people still flock here from other countries where that's less true. You think restaurant workers are lazy? Factory workers? Amazon fulfillment workers? Why do people need two or three exhausting jobs to make a living? > Well gee, I guess the U.S. should stop being such a great place for immigrants, so talented people…

> Why do people need two or three exhausting jobs to make a living?

Most. Not all. The U.S. can still do better, but there needs to be some perspective on how the U.S. stacks up against the rest of the world. Better than most countries, not as good as some.

> Whatever you mean, the US needs young workers to resolve our massive labor shortage and we need educated workers to be our next generation of scientists, doctors, engineers, and entrepreneurs.

Brain drain sounded to me like the U.S. attracting those people is a bad thing, because those people should stay in their own countries. That's not what you meant to imply?

We do need educated workers to fill the jobs you describe, but at the same time we probably send too many young people to college, many of whom would do better with solid technical skills training leading directly to jobs with far less debt.

Re: My parents collect cans for a living

#305

Post by moron4hire » Mon, Dec 20, 2021, 4:24 PM UTC

Ensorceled wrote: post #299

moron4hire wrote: post #263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's strictly because you can't get the color back out of the glass. They want to make new, clear bottles, instead of just accepting that we could all live with just brown bottles.

Well, brown bottles also make it difficult to see if, for instance, those pickles have "passed". Both at the store level and for the consumer.

Huh? Pickles don't go bad. That's kinda the whole point of pickling.

Re: My parents collect cans for a living

#306

Post by selimthegrim » Mon, Dec 20, 2021, 4:24 PM UTC

rootsudo wrote: post #227

lazyasciiart wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Long-winded way of saying you think America should not allow poor people to immigrate because they might cost society too much, and poor Spanish speaking immigrants are probably illegal anyway.

It's valid. Refugees are refugees and are granted legal status. Illegitimate Spanish speaking aliens encourage human trafficking through unsafe conditions, Turbo, Colombia, Darien Gap, Cayotes in general and sponser cartels, - etc, worker extortion, unsafe work places (e.g. company hires illegal aliens, pays under minimum wage, no safety regards and if there's any talk out of line - it's just a call to ICE/DHS and th…

I wasn’t aware on the bottom of the Statue of Liberty it said “Give me your wealthy, fur-clad masses yearning to make a buck”

Re: My parents collect cans for a living

#307

Post by ratww » Mon, Dec 20, 2021, 4:32 PM UTC

ls15 wrote: post #275

Semaphor wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think from a certain size on, they have to take them back. I understand smaller stores not wanting/having to bother. But maybe I'm wrong, after all I almost exclusively buy from REWE, so it's never something I encounter personally.

I think my most recent experience was a LIDL that wouldn't take a beer bottle from REWE.

Same. My local Lidl doesn't sell any Glas bottle at all, so that's why they don't take it.

Re: My parents collect cans for a living

#308

Post by ip26 » Mon, Dec 20, 2021, 4:38 PM UTC

rbanffy wrote: post #130

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…

> 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.

It took both parents working 12 hours a day. But the story appears to be set in New York City.

Isn't living there a choice, not something they are forced into?

Re: My parents collect cans for a living

#309

Post by kevincox » Mon, Dec 20, 2021, 4:39 PM UTC

Ensorceled wrote: post #150

johnnyApplePRNG wrote: post #32

As they should. About a decade ago in Toronto, Ontario, Canada we actually made collecting cans out of recycling bins illegal. The city claimed that these "scavengers" were taking their rightful profits. I shit you not. [0] [0] https://toronto.citynews.ca/2008/08/07/city-to-crack-down-on...

The dirty secret of recycling is that a significant percentage of what the city of Toronto collects is not really recyclable; those black take out containers, pizza boxes, plastic bags, contaminated paper products, loose lids .... The only truly recyclable products are aluminum cans, clean paper and clear glass. Aluminum cans and clean cardboard are the only thing that really pays to recycle. If for profit companies,…

Toronto doesn't claim to recycle most of those objects:

The tool doesn't allow linking to specific items but you can find the source here: https://www.toronto.ca/services-payments/recycling-organics-...

- plastic food tubs: Place any black and/or compostable plastic in the Garbage Bin.

- pizza boxes (food-soiled): Place this item in the Green Bin.

- plastic bags: Recommends reuse first, but does claim that they should be put (bundled) into the recycle.

I'm not saying that they aren't "collected" but it isn't a secret and Toronto very much encourages you doing it correctly.

Re: My parents collect cans for a living

#310

Post by cjrp » Mon, Dec 20, 2021, 4:40 PM UTC

alibarber wrote: post #97

mft_ wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

…which is easy enough to fix with bar codes. This is how it works in Germany. You pay a deposit on every bottle. To get your money back requires a machine to recognise each bottle/can as legitimate, based on the bar code. Now, yes, people could print stickers with fake bar codes on… but I don’t think that would work well at the scale of the major fraud operation you’re envisaging…

I live in Finland, it has this system, the UK where I’m from does not, you just squash your cans and bottles into a weekly recycling collection. It’s the ‘squash’ bit that I miss and makes me hate the deposit system. You have to keep the cans all fully intact, so the machine can read the barcode, so you have to give up stacks of room in your house and carry an awkward big bag of mostly air around to return them.

Do you know if they need the cans in their original shape in order to recycle them? If it's just to keep the barcode intact, presumably it could be printed on the can's base instead.