Thursday, March 24, 2016

One man's trash is another man's treasure


More from the NY Times.

32 comments:

Anonymous said...

Raise the deposit fee from 5 cents to a dime and more people will recycle on their own.
Do you think this women in the video is paying taxes on her $500 a day job ?
She is making so much money she can laugh all the way to the bank while honest hard working tax payers are getting screwed ! Thanks again to all the useless political hacks who created this mess in the first place.

Anonymous said...

The big question is why aren't people turning in their own bottles to get back their deposit? Perhaps having a deposit to 25 cents instead of the current nickel would be a better incentive. Just look at the piles of bottles in the video.

Queens Crapper said...

Seriously? Have you ever gone to the recycling area of a store with 1/2 dozen bottles only to be forced to stand in line behind a bum with hundreds?

Anonymous said...

They're not "Bums",they're self employed homeless entrepreneurs, Vibrant diversity

Anonymous said...

When I was a kid I would return milk bottles to have snack money and not have to ask my parents for money. When is the last time you saw a child returning bottles ? Crappie if you raise the deposit fee you will not be standing in line with bums with hundreds it will be the average Joe on his way to shopping or a kid making some spending money.

Anonymous said...

Everyone should just buy a sodastream and reusable bottles. Problem solved.

Queens Crapper said...

"Crappie if you raise the deposit fee you will not be standing in line with bums with hundreds it will be the average Joe on his way to shopping or a kid making some spending money."

Yes, and I want to stand on a line of 18 people putting one bottle at a time in a machine. Besides, a whole lot of the bottles come from public trash cans. People drink their beverage and toss the bottle rather than lug around an empty bottle.

How about we just dump the deposit since we have mandatory recycling?

Roger said...

What I don't get is why they leave the lids off my cans and my gate open. If my livelihood depended on stuff I take from other people, I would try to keep those people happy, not piss them off.

Anonymous said...

"How about we just dump the deposit since we have mandatory recycling?"
Yes that would work but the idea is to promote recycling with a small incentive. Remove the deposit and that will lead to more litter.

Anonymous said...

The idea was to promote recycling in areas that don't do it. Our area has since instituted mandatory recycling and this is not needed anymore.

Anonymous said...

And our streets are so much cleaner now.

Anonymous said...

I honestly hate quality of life offenses that make the neighborhood look like a 3rd world country.

Maybe its the libertarian in me,....but I personally think hard work and opportunitism in the market should be rewarded.

You think these scavengers are doing this for fun? At least they aint asking for a hand out.

Anonymous said...

How about we just dump the deposit since we have mandatory recycling?

EXACTLY!

Anonymous said...

"How about we just dump the deposit since we have mandatory recycling?"

When I saw this video on the news, I too was wondering why do we have to pay 5 cents a bottle. Then we are expected to go back to the store to get our money back. This is a bunch of bull crap. NYC has mandatory recycling and I am sick and tired of bums, immigrants and all their carts filled with bottles. They make the neighborhoods look bad. And forget about trying to stand on line to return the bottles. A store near me they actually give coins instead of the paper claim receipts. Now all the bottle collectors including the bums come their and now the recycling area is a hot mess. I say do away with the dam 5 cent refund crap.

chico0100 said...

Get rid of the deposit....the reality is that almost all of the money that isn't returned goes right to the state...they love it. They don't send it back to the city at all.

No deposit, increased enforcement of recycling and it will work.

Res Ipsa said...

I return my bottles, but it is a pain in the ass for five cents each. It's much better in places like fairway where you are dealing with a person instead of a machine for bottle redemption.

Twp things would help increase recycling rates: 1- if stores ended the practice of only accepting bottles for products that they sold. 2- have a dedicated redemption center instead of machines that often don't work, or are overtaken by people redeeming a lifetime supply at once.

Has anyone ever tried returning a bottle at Duane Reade or Rite Aid? Almost impossible.

Anonymous said...

People are going in your yard,going thru your trash,ripping open plastic bags so I can get a ticket,bringing dirty filthy bottles and cans back to the stores we buy our food,stealing resources that belong to the city and causing people to store and return items that could just as well be easily picked up with all the other trash in front of our homes.New Jersey has recycling collection but no deposit laws and I think their streets are much cleaner than NY.Time has come to repeal the Bottle Bill that was passed in a time before recycling pick ups.

Anonymous said...

People are going in your yard

That is trespassing.
Is not like the police don't see these people in other people's backyard.
Enforce the laws!

Anonymous said...

re DSNY recycling theft complaint form

(does a shopping cart count as a "vehicle" ? this rule & form do not deal with the reality of scavenger trespassers in nyc) (and all over the city there are now 2-3 bins at corners: trash + metal glass plastic and/or mixed paper recycling)

http://www1.nyc.gov/assets/dsny/contact/complaints/recyclable-material-theft-observation.shtml

Recyclable Material Theft Observation

For NYC Residents Only. Use this form to submit your request OR call the NYC Citizen Service Center at 3-1-1.

To report a vehicle that removed recyclable materials set out for DSNY collection.

TRN Astoria 11106

Anonymous said...

Old Chinese guy with a shopping cart the size of a car got me 2 DENY TICKETS BECAUSE he goes through my recycling bin and threw non deposit cans in my regular trash,what the hell I'm Rich right?
Now I pour Hot Sauce all over inside my recycling bin
Now my cans are left alone.

Anonymous said...

Shopping cart, bag on the shoulder - not a vehicle.
Trucks, cars, vans obviously are.

Camel bladder said...

I'm not really sure which way we should go here. If we increase the deposit and add a deposit to non carbonated beverages there would be a lot less of this crap all over the streets and highways, but well have a lot more of these urchins picking up the crap. If we were to eliminate the deposit the litter problem would get worse unless they were to start a litter crackdown, which is what should really be done. Make the citizens act like adults.

Anonymous said...

I keep my cans and bottles in the garage, and only give them directly to an old woman who doesn't go into peoples' yards, and whom I find quite respectful.

Anonymous said...

Anyone ever see the old Asian man in Flushing who rides a bicycle attached to a large garbage container in the middle of Northern Blvd. while he picks up all types of recycling ? Looks like something out of Mad Max !

Anonymous said...

500 dollars plus welfare= more money for this illegal and her illegal brats!

Anonymous said...

I return my OWN bottles to the recycling center. I know which ones are NOT populated by filthy Chinese bums with 500 bottles they stole out of peoples' garbage. I put the bottles and occasional can through the machines as rapidly as possible and then turn in my hard-won receipt. Any Chinese human trash who comes poking around my recycle cans gets screamed at and harassed and told not to come back. And I have not seen them come to my recycle can, because they know they will find NO redeemable bottles in there. They belong in the trash cans more than the trash does.

Anonymous said...

Anyone ever see the old Asian man in Flushing who rides a bicycle attached to a large garbage container in the middle of Northern Blvd. while he picks up all types of recycling

Have not seen him in a while. What a show!

Anonymous said...

I rather have some people collect the bottles rather than beg for money. Most of them tie up the bags after taking the bottles. I don't think they would be working regular jobs anyways.

Anonymous said...

There are at least two Chinese who go through my recycling looking for bottles in Broadway.
Hmmmm...."Bottles In Broadway"...great title for a play.

Anonymous said...

Wait a second.

"The moment refuse hits the curb it becomes the city’s property — and the city’s problem. "

If that's the case, where does the Sanitation Dept come off fining us for their property?

Anonymous said...

where does the Sanitation Dept come off fining us for their property?

You see when is keeping it tidy is your property.
When is about revenue is city property.

Like in a true Banana Republic!

Unknown said...

New to NYC, one collecter passed on bottles I offered, too heavy..lmaooo..not bums, a job. In that sense good other not so much... Train your garbage picker like the one who reamed them out. They don't want a beating. I already reamed one out, problem solved. ;-) I'm teaching my kids no handouts, now they recycle. I did it as a kid.