Maxie is horrified to discover an enormous pile of discarded water bottles under a bed.
Maxie and I are both appalled by the sheer volume of bottles we found under my son’s bed. Why was I looking under my son’s bed? I was looking for hangers. Was I mad? No not really, at least I know he is well-hydrated. But this mound of bottles does highlight another issue, other than my son likes hoarding empty water bottles. Where exactly are we supposed to dispose of our bottles?
Here in California, we are forced to pay a 5 cent deposit for every bottle of beverage we purchase. For a case of water, we pay a $1.20 extra for the deposit on the bottles. In theory, after consuming the beverage, we can then take the empty bottles to a recycling center and redeem our deposit. But it seems all the recycling centers are closing or have closed. Presently, we have 27 garbage bags full of discarded bottles piled up in our garage and we have no place to take them. If I put the bottles in the recycling can, then I am essentially throwing a nickel into the garbage every time I discard a bottle.
I did some research to find out why the recycling centers are closing. All I could find was a small article about closing the recycling centers 2 days a week in certain neighborhoods, to discourage the homeless from rifling through the blue recycling cans placed out on the street for garbage pick-up days. In another article, I found a story about undercover investigations done at the recycling centers to see if they were undercharging people for their bottles. Based on the results of the sting operations, the government decided to close the recycling centers altogether. Now the consumer is not able to redeem any of their 5 cent deposit. Oh, that makes sense!
I am sure there are readers out there that will say – don’t drink bottled water. And I say – our water here smells weird, has particulate matter in it and just isn’t that palatable. There will be other readers that say – why would you let your son throw all those bottles under his bed, you should punish him, shout at him, take privileges away – and I say – you are right, I should do all those things, but there are bigger battles to fight, and besides it makes for a blog post, with a photo of a cute a** puppy. And then others will say, is this really an important issue, do you have NOTHING else to worry about? Why aren’t you posting about world hunger, violence and the Presidential elections? Well, because bottles under the bed, the closing of recycling places, me chucking my hard-earned nickels into the recycling can, the average consumer getting taken advantage of, and simply being the pawn in a bigger pissing contest, are of concern to me today.
Photo credits
sfgate.com
fil.yelp.com.ph