In the not so distant past I was looking at what it would take to repeal the Oregon Bottle Bill. I told my roommate what I was up to and he said “please not while we are living together, people will come here and kick MY ass.” I was actually thinking about trying, even though it would be unlikely to succeed. I was living paycheck to paycheck and when I tried to return my cans for money I needed, there would be huge lines of houseless people at the machines and the machines were always broken or just full. The stores don’t empty the machines promptly. So I would give it an hour then hand them to a houseless person, even though I needed the money for food. I resented the fact that stores charged me 10 cents a can and took it from my bank account in microseconds, but when I tried to get my deposit back I couldn’t. Instead of trying to repeal the Bottle Bill I decided to quit buying products in cans and bottles, completely. This meant giving up my sparkling water, not too big a sacrifice.
I had the same attitude about houseless people then, that is held toward me now. I saw so much garbage everywhere, everything I have ever owned has been stolen from me and one who lived in the bushes outside had a mental illness that caused him to shout angerly all night long, making me tired at work all the time. I was certain that most of them were collecting cans and bottles to support a substance abuse problem, so I saw the Bottle Bill as something that enabled addicts.
Now I’m houseless myself. Instead of littering I go around and pick up messes from crows pulling garbage out of cans and I got this idea because I saw other houseless people doing it. There are many genuinely good people out here making a living off collecting bottles and cans, I’m one of them. To me it’s a last resort, there is literally no other reliable way for me to afford gas and printing materials to try and get people to see what I’m trying to accomplish. I have mixed feelings about the Bottle Bill still. The factor that keeps me in favor is the fact that Oregon recycles 90% of its containers, which compared to the nation is a high percentage.
So I’ve been asking myself, how can I make waste valuable enough so that bottles and cans could become a less desirable resource for houseless people? My immediate goal is to invent products that are made of the most abundant usable waste in Portland. Cardboard tops the list, followed by paper sacks and then wine bottles. Those are the three big ones. You have to understand that if these things suddenly had value, there is already a network of houseless people to retrieve them. Ask any person who collects bottles and cans where a house is with a ton of cardboard waste every week, and I bet they could tell you three off the top of their head. Add to this, we know the pickup schedules of all the neighborhoods.
Is it unethical to plan a business that runs off people collecting waste from recycling bins? I’m sure some people would say yes. I’m doing it. If I can turn people’s lives around, it outweighs any minor inconvenience homeowners might experience. I would love to hear comments on this, it’s interesting to me.
Thank you for reading, and I need ideas on how to drive people to this blog, so give them up if you have them.
Art4survival 