Expanded bottle bill would turn more trash into more cash

[MADem]

http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2014/10/31/for-poor-expanded-bottle-bill-would-turn-more-trash-into-more-cash/pdzuaUUqdcVDiyREN7jAZP/story.html

Before dawn most mornings, Jose Lopez and his father slip on rubber gloves and steer their old pickup through Allston and Brighton searching for cans and bottles littering streets, parks, and alleys, as well as those destined for landfills in dumpsters and trash cans.

They don’t work for the city, but the men do serve the public, and they make a living from their long days scouring Boston, enough to afford a cramped, three-bedroom apartment in Allston and necessities for their family of seven.


If a ballot question that would expand the state’s bottle deposit law passes next week, it would allow them to redeem bottles from water, sports drinks, and other non-carbonated beverages that they now ignore. That would provide a major financial boost to their family and help clean up their neighborhood, they said....