As kids in Seattle the 1950s, we collected bottles to supplement our somewhat meager allowances. The major collection event of the year was Seafair. One year, the new Thriftway celebrated their anniversary with a bottle collection drive. Whoever collected the most bottles would earn a bonus prize in addition to the deposit money. We figured by consolidating our efforts using Rob Munger, our oldest kid, as our figurehead, we could win that prize … and we did!
Now, in Vancouver, we have a situation where Waste Connections wants to collect all the cans and bottles and sell them as scrap while we have desperately poor folks wanting to turn them in for cash (“Can collectors’ rummaging rankles Clark County residents,” The Columbian, Feb. 21). Why not set your monetizable cans and bottles aside for those in grinding poverty as a meager cash stream? That way they aren’t picking through our garbage and save a little of their dignity.
