Oregon is one of only a few states that has what's called a bottle deposit: you pay an extra ten cents per plastic or glass bottle or metal can (excluding wine for some reason) and anyone can pick up that can and go bug a fucking Plaid Pantry associate at 3am for the 10¢ deposit. The intent of the original Bottle Bill was to encourage recycling and picking up detritus, but in practice it's become a source of income for many of us.
Recently Oregon went back into lockdown, which means no more bottle returns for a while.
Last time this happened I saw how it fucked my friends over. Some skipped town. Some went through horrible withdrawals because they couldn't afford their medicine. I did the best I could to help, and I did fairly well with both my tax returns and stimulus check on deck. But this time I'm fucking struggling to get by myself. I was actually going to start canning before I knew this was gonna happen.
So please be mindful that unhoused people are being hit hard this month. If you live in Oregon and run into a homeless person, give cash if possible, or ask if you can buy them something from the store (don't just assume what we want/need). If you're not in Oregon or unable/unwilling to provide direct assistance, donate to orgs such as PPOP and The People's Store. I'll write up a more comprehensive list later, if there's interest.
And always remember that we're people just like you. We have quirks and interests of our own. Our lives now are as just as complex and meaningful as they were before homelessness. We dead ass have a whole culture and society of our own.
Peace, yo.
I'm asking genuinely. I live in a state that doesn't do bottle returns so I don't really understand how lockdown affects it.
Because it normally requires a lot of human contact, and contact with things that have touched human orifices, i.e. people's mouths. Also because most people who return cans are unhoused, and unhoused people are the Untouchables of the imperial core.
Yeah that makes sense