So I live downtown. Every Thursday night or Friday (recycling day) early morning, a number of people wander the streets with shopping carts, going through recycling bins for bottles they can reclaim for the refund. I don’t mind this, because you gotta make money somehow, and in a way it allows some independence and initiative. I have a lot of bottles from all over the place that I don’t need for brewing–screw top bottles or those with labels that won’t come off–and since I don’t go to the beer store much, since I brew my own, sometimes I throw a few in the bin knowing they’ll be taken, and the bottle takers will get some money.
Last night I put about ten pint bottles in the bin. I figured, well, this will net 80 cents for someone, and I won’t have to take them in. It’s win-win, right?
(I should note that this is not my only, or major, charitable activity. In fact, it’s not charitable. It’s just a thing I do. I’m not trying to make myself seem like some selfless hero of the underclass. I just don’t see anything wrong with what they’re doing, although some would disagree).
Well, this morning I woke up and looked outside at the curb. Something seemed amiss with my collection of bins and boxes.
Then I realized what it was: someone had removed all of the non-bottles from the recycling bin, and taken the bin, with the bottles.
So much for minor gestures of goodwill.
It made me want to put broken bottles in the bin (how’s that for a blind rage reaction?) but I will not do so. I will likely put a sign on my (new) bin from now on (saying “I put bottles in here and you thanked me by stealing my bin: fuck you”). That will probably result in the next bin being nicked, too. I also feel like sitting at the local beer store seeing who arrives with my bin and having a conversation, that would probably also end with “fuck you very much.”
But knowing me, I’ll probably just never put bottles in the bin again. I guess if I was still feeling generous I could put them out in a separate box, but that would be nice, and you see where that got me. It’s a minor thing, but insulting none the less.
