Coming Out Ahead?

To the man who's digging through the recycling bins, looking for deposit bottles:

I kind of admire your chutzpah.  It's recycling day, and you're driving up and down streets, collecting the deposit bottles that people have opted to recycle rather than haul back to the grocery.  It's kind of like found money.

But when I think about the time it takes to go through said bins and haul the recyclables to a redemption center, I start thinking that you're doing this out of necessity, and that makes me sad.  Hopefully I'm wrong, and this is just one of your many hobbies.

However, your actions disturbed me on a different level today.  While you're going through the bins, you're letting your car idle.  Um, gas is close to $4/gallon now.  Are you really making enough money off your deposit bottles to offset the amount of money you save on gas?

I really hate to see you working so hard for a few nickels, only to put that money right back into your gas tank.  Maybe if you just park your car and walk up and down the block with a big trash bag for your collecting, you won't have to spend this extra cash so quickly.

Just a thought.

Your pal,
Jill