I’ll cash in a few empty cans and bottles in those redemption machines at local supermarkets. But I never carry over bags filled 6 feet high or shopping carts filled with broken, dented, filthy, smelly glass and plastic bottles and cans. Working as a merchandiser in local supermarkets, I see some people, usually the same people, redeeming these items every day. I’ve read they are supposed to be limited to 240 cans or bottles per day but they well exceed that limit, which the stores don’t enforce.
I realize it’s a way of life for some people I see going through public and private garbage cans fishing for every nickel item they can find. Aside from the fact some people stuff odd brands and crushed items into the machines, often breaking or jamming them, what I find sickening and disgusting is to see people putting their mouths on a deflated bottle that they just fished out of a garbage can and trying to blow it up so they can redeem it.
The beer, soda and juice liquids left in shopping carts and in the machines is bad enough, but while I can feel sorry that people apparently need this redemption money to survive, I find many get hostile and won’t stop stuffing the machines for a few seconds to allow me to cash in a handful of items. There’s got to be a better way.
