‘The Bottle Bill Is Just the Beginning’: How Canners Can Make a Cleaner, Better City

Rixaru X who has worked collecting cans and bottles off city streets for the last six years spoke to City Limits about the challenges New York City canners face and how the Bigger Better Bottle bill would improve their lives and the city s livability Rixaru X and his -year-old son bringing cans and bottles to a reverse vending machine in the Bronx Adi Talwar City Limits When a New Yorker tosses a bottle or can onto the city s streets a hidden workforce of nearly freelance recyclers known as canners is there to pick it up Ever since New York state passed the Bottle Bill in to encourage recycling empty beverage containers for soda beer or sparkling water may be returned to retailers or redemption centers in exchange for a cent deposit Making bottles and cans redeemable allows New Yorkers to make a living from recycling And it s good for the habitat as it keeps trash out of gutters helping prevent sewage overflows that can lead to flooding while also directing waste away from landfills I hope and envision that our work can be viewed as part of the greater work done to address the environmental issues and the overall quality of life that we have in the city commented Rixaru X a canner and activist from the Bronx But Rixaru and his colleagues say the law is outdated The amount of the refundable deposit necessities to increase and the types of drinks covered by the bill need to be expanded The Bigger Better Bottle Bill presently up for discussion in Albany would do all that and more The bill which is seeking a stamp of approval from both houses before the legislative session ends in June would increase the -cent refundable deposit fee to cents It would also raise the -cent per container handling fee that beverage retailers pay to redemption centers to cents And perhaps largest part essential for canners like Rixaru it would expand the types and number of beverage containers covered by the law to include all beverages except dairy and percent fruit and vegetable juices Beyond canners the city as a whole would also reap the benefits advocates say It s going to increase recycling rates revealed Sean Basinski a board member at the non-profit Sure We Can which fights for the rights of canners across the city The state s environmental agency says the current law already leads to percent of all beverage containers being redeemed and plays a big role in the conservation of ability and valuable tools The new bill seeks to increase that redemption rate to percent potentially resulting in billion more cans and bottles a year kept out of landfills and waterways according to the environmental research group Reloop As the push to get Albany lawmakers to pass the bill by June heats up City Limits spoke to Rixaru about the work he does the challenges canners face and why their region is backing the Bigger Better Bottle Bill This conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity Describe an average day for you while you re doing this work In a place like New York City there is so much littering If I m going to the medical expert s office between here and there I pick up cans So I didn t make canning the main purpose of my life but with all the cans and all the bottles all around the streets everywhere you go I started gathering them every time I went outside Every time I walk to the store every time I do something you know that s more like how it works Rixaru and his son Micaollin in front of reverse vending machines located on Street in the Bronx Adi Talwar City Limits What issues do you face while getting cans off the street and recycling them Even though we are helping the neighborhood by getting trash off the streets when they see people with shopping carts or picking up bottles they look down on us Another natural limitation of this process is that the bulk dropoff points only take bottles of products that they sell at that store So rather than just having a database of all the bottles and cans sold in the area they limit it to that store And sometimes the machine just acts up Then there s particular bottles that none of the machines will take So we want to be able to add all these types of plastic and metals and glass products into the database of accepted cans that in the present aren t accepted We also need to increase the amount of money we get for these bottles because cents per bottle is low If I spend hours doing this and I only make you know it s not economical What else would you change about this process I ve inevitably had ideas of how this could become a new type of workforce or job description for the city That would allow us to take on more of a beautification role in neighborhoods and help address a few of the environmental issues like clearing out the clogged-up drains I think the city should see us as a workforce They could create a system where you could call a canner like you would call an Uber and say Hey can you clean this gutter out Here s every time you do this We are already out here walking in the neighborhoods They could create an app where we could get called to the closest location where there is particular kind of need like that And it could be a way at a very low cost to make a big difference because we re kind of like a canvassing workforce out here all over the place dependably walking around It would allow us to get more trash off the streets We hope to get the actual administration to see the value that this would provide in improving the quality of life for the people that reside in the city There s a clear and present need for a canner workforce but nobody could figure out down with all the bigwigs in City Hall how to do it because it s not really like a capitalist agenda It s more of an environmental-social thing in my opinion What about the bottle bill could it solve specific of these problems The bottle bill is just the beginning It opens the door for a whole group of people that have not really had a voice and haven t felt their voice will be heard It doesn t end with this bottle bill We don t go away and say yay we ve won everything This is the beginning of a conversation about how we could be a more developing part about the discourse in our communities related to economics employment urban habitat the broader surroundings that we all live in It s about empowering people that are looking for a way to make money and help the region at the same time It would be nice if people saw us as an asset in the society and they saw us as workers The greater part people think we re just bums and mentally disturbed people who can t make it any other way And the truth is I do the group work I think about these issues but I m also in a situation where I need to do this You know what I mean So if there s one thing that I would want it s to inspire people to see that it is feasible to look at this working public of canners in a new way I hope and envision that our work can be viewed as part of the greater work done to address the environmental issues and the overall quality of life that we have in the city To reach the reporter behind this story contact Mariana citylimits org To reach the editor contact Jeanmarie citylimits org Want to republish this story Find City Limits reprint procedures here The post The Bottle Bill Is Just the Beginning How Canners Can Make a Cleaner Better City appeared first on City Limits