Cash For Cans

                In California, a $0.05 deposit is charged on beverage containers; i.e. aluminum cans, glass and plastic bottles.  The idea is obviously to encourage recycling.  When someone takes these items to a recycling center, they get the nickels back. 

                Almost every time I stop in Barstow, CA, one of the local residents is digging through the trash cans on the fuel islands looking for cans and bottles to take in to the recycling center.  I admire the people doing this for two reasons:

    1.       It’s hot in Barstow… All. The. Time.

    2.       Digging through trash sucks.

        I really do admire the people doing this.  In truck stops and on street corners all around the country we see people panhandling, but these people are out earning money.  No, it isn’t glamorous.  I can’t imagine it’s very lucrative.  (I can tell you from when we lived out there, a lawn & leaf sized trash bag full of crushed cans will get you about $28.)  But, they’re DOING SOMETHING, not just looking for handouts.

        This really strikes a chord with me because when I lost my house in 2012, I had choices to make.  I didn’t choose to go squat on someone’s couch, I didn’t go get two cardboard boxes (one to sleep in and one to make a sign with.)  I went to work at a job that also afforded me somewhere to sleep.  I’m a hardcore conservative Libertarian, so this is a big deal to me, but that’s all I’m going to say about politics.

        I was thinking about it on my way back from my last CA run and the fact that I drive all over this country throwing away cans and bottles.  I decided to do something about it; I decided I could reduce my environmental footprint and help people who are showing initiative at the same time.  So… now I’m saving my aluminum cans.  I go through more cans than bottles, but decided I can’t save everything without making it look like a landfill in the truck.  I crush the cans and put them in a plastic shopping bag.  Right now I have one full – tied off and in the sidebox – and I’m working on filling a second.  I’m hoping to get back out there before I get a third filled.

        So who is with me?  I would love to see more drivers doing this.  You’ll never see me chained to a 600-year-old tree that some corporation wants to tear down, but I do believe in doing my part to take care of the little piece of the planet that God has blessed me with; and while you also won’t see me doing things for people that they can and should be doing for themselves, you will regularly see me helping people who are putting forth effort to take care of themselves and/or change their lives.

        So who is with me?