There”s a man who collects bottles in my suburb. Every fortnight he brings a ratty bag, launches head first into our recycling bin and rummages through our discarded rubbish for bottles. He avoids eye contact and I”ve never seen anyone confront him, nor have I heard him talk. Warranted he is a big man, with a bald head and an unapproachable demenaour. He lives rough. Twice now I”ve stumbled upon him in the act and ducked behind my door. I”ve stood there spying through the peep hole, my heart thumping in my chest. I”m not sure who I”m protecting – him or me. I”m certain he has built up a shell around him. I, on the other hand, am not sure what to say to someone who has his head in my bin and his arse crack sticking up in the air. I want to give a him a nod, let him know I am fine with him taking our bottles. Is there some way I could make it easier for him? Would my attitude towards him change if I found out he had a sophisticated bottle collection operation and was, in fact, not living tough? Would I feel cheated? Does it make me feel more charitable by judging him to be worse off than me? Why do I hide from him?
I need to ditch my discomfort. Regardless of his personal circumstances, I am comfortable with him picking through our waste, it”s just the predatory nature of the hunt. I think he”s resourceful. I think entrepreneurial endeavours should be supported and celebrated. I am not going to take my bottles to the recycling depot – why not him? Everyone has to make a dollar.
Bottle collectors are not a new phenomenon, but I wonder if they are noticing a downturn in trade, like other industries? It”s been a difficult 12 months for many people – high interest rates, rising unemployment, a haemorrhaging global pokies online economy and bottoming house prices. Rents are on the rise, the cost of living skyrocketing and companies are cutting costs, which in turn is, putting immense pressure on the small business sector. We”ve struggled financially and we are definitely not alone. Cask wine, Vegemite sandwiches, staycations and numerous mince meat meals have featured highly at our house. There”s been many times we”ve rummaged through coin jars to afford milk and bread until the next bill was paid by a client. And the kids” Xmas money helped put petrol in the car. Resourcefulness and frugality have ruled.
With the heightened financial strain has come not only desperation, but also a cheeky irreverence. My favourite is the North Carolina man who tried to pay for his $476 worth of groceries at Wal-Mart with his homemade $1 million dollar bill. He was arrested. I think he should have been awarded for his stupidity.
This brings me back to The Bottle Man. He could waste his time sitting at home thinking up get rich quick schemes or making counterfeit million dollar bills, instead he braves the elements. He gets dirty, he swallows his pride and walks the streets collecting bottles. He works harder than most and for that he should be applauded, not avoided. Next time I will look him in the eye, he deserves that. And I”m going to start putting the bottles aside for him, to make his job a little easier.
How”s your financial reality at the moment? Got any good mince or lentil recipes?
🙂
Like your family we rely on clients paying us so we can pay others. It’s hard sometimes. On the other hand I can make 500g of mince feed us for two nights. Â And eggs? I can make some fantastic egg dishes… especially if I also have potatoes or lentils.Â
While I don’t have a bottle man I do come across my share of homeless people and when they ask I always give them the change I have. Â Because to my way of thinking if these people have the humility to ask, the least I can do is look them in the eye and treat them like I’d like to be treated if I was in their situation.Â
Setting the bottles aside for him seems like a great idea.Â
If I see another lentil I think I’m gonna scream…
The thought of the bottle man and others doing what they do to survive makes me sad. We are struggling in the current financial climate but we live in a big house and really have nothing to complain about. Maybe time to downsize and it won’t be end of the world because we are still a thousand times better off than so many others. Great post – and great idea to leave the bottles aside 🙂
We have a lot of good mince recipes! Our financial situation is set to either improve dramatically when we refinance our home in a few months or slide down into the red again if we make the crazy decision to move into a bigger house, I can feel panic attacks coming on when I think about both options! Am off to make pea and ham soup with the left over Christmas ham!
Love this post! I know exactly what you mean about tightening of the belts. I think it’d be great if you put aside the bottles for The Bottle Man. Good for you!
Good post, Im hearin you, but we are so lucky to have a house and food even if its mince and lentils, its good as it forces me to be more resourseful and creative in the kitchen. Maybe the bottleman would like a cup of tea next time, can only ask? I posted about my leftover meal today, the kids even liked it 🙂
My thought was to leave the bottles aside but then you’ll get people like my in-laws who we spotted pulled over on Pt Wakefield Rd picking up bottles, instead of this fellow. And trust me when I tell you they don’t need the money. I know that Australia is doing well economically. I also know that our financial struggles at the moment are very much middle class ones ie. paying our health insurance & mortgage. I grew up in a house where the electricity was turned off regularly cos mum couldn’t afford the bill thanks to Dad taking off god knows where & leaving us without food or money. That isn’t the case for us now but we are doing it tougher than ever before. We hoped like heck we’d get money for Christmas to help pay our rego and other bills. In a strange way though I like the creativity that comes with being frugal. Even when we do end up better off financially again I really hope we can maintain some of the habits we’re adopting now. And by the way I have a post along similar lines brewing. 😉 xx
We used to have a bottle man whom I’m only mildly sorry to say I did not feel at all charitable towards because he came at around 5 – 5.30am, clanking and crashing and bashing and clinking his way up and down the street, waking us up and forcing us to adjust our ‘putting-out-the-bin’ routine from the night before to when we got up, every week praying we didn’t forget in our early morning foggy state and therefore miss collection altogether. We did eventually start saving and recycling the bottles and cans ourselves which became the kids spending money. Amazing how quickly $40 worth can accumulate.
And now we have gone back to being lazy, partly due to the dog’s tendency to attack our recycle collection, and they go in the bin. And now we have no bottle man.
And I have no point to my story…..
When we lived in the USA there were a couple of guys who did the same (no point in NSW, you don’t get $$ for it). We also used to save our bottles and cash them in but on realising how little you actually received for them we would save them until the garbage bin was full and put them all out at once. The sounds of appreciation from the collector was worth much more than the couple of dollars we would have received cashing them in. Plus saving them made it easier for him to find them 🙂