News Sep 17, 2014 at 4:00 pm

Recycling Center in North Portland Worries Homeless Can Collectors

Comments

1
Making it more difficult for the most prolific can returners will not get the returned amount above 80%.
2
Seems like the worst way to go about it. "Casual" returners (e.g., me) will just want to take the bottles back when they return to the grocery store for more groceries -- I don't want to drive to some separate place just to return eight bottles. Stopping service at the grocery stores in inane. Reducing the number of returns at stores in order to keep the lines moving does make sense... presuming these new centers were easily accessible to people returning mass amounts of recyclables. Which, whoops.
3
You can add a proposed bottle and can depot at 17th and W Burnside, freeing FM & Safeway from collecting the empty cans they profit on selling full. Interesting, the OLCC controls the approval. And the plan was withdrawn. Would bet it returns...

P31 http://www.oregon.gov/olcc/docs/bottle_bil…

http://www.oregon.gov/olcc/docs/bottle_bil…
4
The city is going to be fixing that entire area entering into Delta Park from N Interstate pretty darn soon to make it better/safer for cars, bikes & pedestrians, so while it might not be the most convenient spot right now, it will be in a couple of years. They've already made a nice bike/walk trail away from the road as you turn towards Delta Park, so that's a start.

I do agree that the stores need to continue to host returns!! If what I've seen in other states rings true here in OR, if more and more redemption centers start opening up that have better service, the big returners will flock to those locations, leaving the grocery store return spots a tad nicer for the rest of us occasional returners.
5
I think one of the bigger things to remember is this argument should be about recycling and not about some of the ancillary benefits of the program. Are we getting the best recycling results from store centers? I gave up a while ago taking my bottles back to the store because the machines were LITERALLY (yes, literally) clogged every time I went and very dirty and unkempt. The bottle return on the street near me is a complete eye sore with the stained concrete and garbage lining the street that gets blown all over the place and bottle caps embedded into the dirt.

The system really is just outdated for the number of returns there are. We definitely need something better, and as a former worker who emptied these darn things; it's just unfair to saddle grocery stores with this task.

And even the most compassionate person has to admit that people going onto your property or through your bins is really a nuisance, even if it does provide slight income to the poor. It's just not a livable scenario to have bottles and shopping carts clanking through your neighborhood all hours of the night.

With that said, I could see myself donating cans to a homeless/poverty program or something similar like I do schools at the grocery store (oddly the bottle return for this area of the grocery store is always very clean). That seemed to be the most painless way of recycling bottles for me without the deposit going away to wherever it does when you don't return them.

As it stands now, anything that gets away from grocery store returns is something I will embrace. I say bring it on if it's fast and easy, which I hear it is.
6
" ... with their shopping carts."

You spelled "stolen" wrong.
7
To what extent are some of the bottle collectors just fundraisers for the Mexican cartels?
"I seen the needle and the damage done" every day on my drive to work. Maybe there will be an accidental benefit to our junkie population by cutting down on the can business.
8
I see a fundraising opportunity for scout troops or schools. I like the idea of recycling, but the time and hassle for getting back a couple of bucks just ain't worth it. Set up a monthly pickup day, and I will put a bag of cans on the curb. Free nickels await!

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