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My parents collect cans for a living

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Re: My parents collect cans for a living

#391

Post by nisse72 »

Several years ago I worked in a small office with a coke machine, and we would put the empty cans into a bin next to it that the cleaners would (presumably) take away from time to time.

At some point we noticed that the office was becoming infested with fruit flies, and after some investigation we discovered months or years worth of those cans in a closed off hallway, in a dozen giant trash bags.

My manager tossed a couple of the bags into the back of his car and drove to a nearby grocery store where there was a can recyling "machine" outside, that you could feed the cans into and get a receipt to cash in in the store. One. Can. At. A. Time. He spotted some kids skateboarding nearby and said "hey do you want to make some money" and gave them the cans, then made a couple more trips to get the rest of them.

Probably he could have gone inside and spoken to a manager to arrange a more efficient way to offload the cans, but those kids were absolutely stoked.

Re: My parents collect cans for a living

#392

Post by relaxing »

azundo wrote: post #366
relaxing wrote: post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No one drove to NJ for groceries, the $5 bridge toll would offset any gains. You’d drive to one of the surrounding counties in PA, provided you lived close enough for the trip to make sense. According to that paper, that happened in about 50% of sales, which is still a net win in terms of reduced consumption. Very little is “lost” to the city when that happens, because groceries are tax exempt.

Presumably the owners and operators of the grocery stores are losing, and are constituents of the city, pay payroll taxes, property taxes, etc.

You don’t have to presume - the aspects you bring up are well studied. There was no negative effect on employment. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33232891/

In fact, a Rutgers study found a net positive effect due to the tax spend on early childhood education. https://nieer.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Beverage-Tax202...

Not sure what you think happened with property taxes, but there was no rash of store closings. Due to consumers periodically bulk buying soda at a different chain outlet or otherwise.

Re: My parents collect cans for a living

#393

Post by stjohnswarts »

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?

There aren't any poor people working hard just to get by in your country?

Re: My parents collect cans for a living

#394

Post by zeckalpha »

kkjjkgjjgg wrote: post #265
zeckalpha wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many places use a deposit system, where if you return the packaging for recycling, you get your money back. This cuts down on litter, at no cost to those who recycle.

But presumably, the higher the price for returning bottles, the less likely people will be to just dump them on the street, for the collectors to collect? Or it will become attractive for more collectors. In any case, it may not be so simple to raise their "wage" for collecting bottles.

Many people will dump on the street (or in cans the collectors tend to) even if the deposit tripled.

Re: My parents collect cans for a living

#395

Post by rbanffy »

jimbokun wrote: post #212
rbanffy wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

> She's the one who made it, unlike thousands of others, who worked equally hard, and didn't. Data? Immigrants continue to do very well in the U.S., often succeeding to a greater extent than people born here.

Is working 12 hours a day so you can afford to live what you’d describe as doing “very well”?

I don’t know why you decided to compare immigrants to natives. I made no such distinction. Nobody, immigrant or not, should have to work 12 hours a day just to survive.

Re: My parents collect cans for a living

#396

Post by PeterisP »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #136
rladd wrote: post #53

This 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?

If collecting doesn't pay enough to be worth doing, it does not get done.

Re: My parents collect cans for a living

#397

Post by PeterisP »

umvi wrote: post #257
i_am_proteus wrote: post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Typically these function as deposit programs: e.g. $0.10 per can is levied at retail purchase, to be hypothetically returned when the can is turned in for recycling, effectively creating bounties for the pickup and recycle of cans discarded rather than recycled.

Ah, so GP is essentially proposing raising prices on canned and bottled goods then to allow collectors to have living wage. That is a tricky needle to thread though because raise refund prices too much and fewer people will litter because it's like throwing money on the ground.

"raise refund prices too much and fewer people will litter" - what drawbacks would that have?

Re: My parents collect cans for a living

#398

Post by necovek »

MomoXenosaga wrote: post #355
necovek wrote: post #321

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I don't see a connection between homeless people and street musicians, I am intrigued by your complaint of the street musicians? My kids are fascinated by them, and as long as they are not taking up too much space to make it impossible to pass through the street (and if they do, I'll happily pass through their "stage"), I am quite happy to have the streets livened up by some music too. Not all of it is good or…

They block the shopping streets and their music is terrible. There are no empty streets in the Netherlands on a Saturday and there is nothing more depressing than a Eastern European on an accordion.

Btw, here in Serbia (what you'd probably call Eastern Europe :), accordions are pretty rare (I guess they all went to Netherlands :)) other than in gypsy bands (but they rarely play in the streets other than when following weddings around), but violins (usually students), keyboards and guitars (number one, duh) are most common, but you get to hear a trumpet or a flute too. We are just classy like that (or there might be a musical school or two nearby in the part of Belgrade I see them in ;).

Re: My parents collect cans for a living

#399

Post by kwinten »

me_me_mu_mu wrote: post #302
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.

The only people who complain about America are... millionaires? I can't follow your train of thought at all. Crazy if you actually believe this.

Re: My parents collect cans for a living

#400

Post by efficax »

rladd wrote: post #53

This is why I have always thought that can and bottle deposit prices should keep up with inflation: to give the collectors a living wage.

In Germany, at least last time i was there, a plastic bottle got you a full Euro back as a deposit. Aluminum a little less but still good. The result was you basically never saw a plastic bottle on the ground outside of tourist areas where people didn't know about the Pfand. And even there, the bottle doesn't stay on the ground for long because that's a whole euro there on the ground. Nobody throws away a whole euro, and just about every one will bend down to pick one up.
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