The price of being a good citizen is weekly scrutiny by the trashy

Every Monday morning, I am reminded of how what we might call basic quality of life has declined. There is just something about going out the front door first thing in the morning and being glared at by an angry man who looks like a ex-convict from central casting who believes he is somehow entitled to what is not in my recycle bins and never was there, that just rankles me.

The problem is recycling. It has created an opportunity and an incentive for criminal scum to rifle through trash bins and recycling bins. What they are looking for are the valuable cans and bottles that are not supposed to be either in the trash or the recycle bin.  Michigan is one of the 11 states with container deposit laws. Unlike the other ten states (which require a five cent deposit to be paid along with the purchase of each beverage container — to be refunded if and when the can or bottle is brought “back” to the store), Michigan has a ten cent deposit. This is the highest in the country, the beverage industry hates it, and while it is intended to provide an incentive for the consumer to take the cans back, not all consumers are interested in their deposits. The “good” consumers return them, while the economically uninterested or lazy ones just throw them away. You might think that the better off citizens would be the ones who don’t bother with taking them back, but you’d be wrong. In the wealthier neighborhoods of Ann Arbor, the marginal people who comb through the bins would be wasting their time. Higher incomes seem to translate into a certain sense of — what’s the word? Responsibility? Environmental concern? Being a good citizen? Obeying the law? Doing what you are told?

I don’t mean to make these people sound like pliant citizens of the Reich or something, and if I sound judgmental, bear in mind that I include myself in the category of “the responsible.” I take every damned can or bottle back to the store for the deposit. The experienced bottom feeders in my neighborhood know that my bins are a waste of time, and I like that. (So maybe I am partially driven to do “the right thing” out of malice….) But the can and bottle rummaging has grown ever more competitive, and there are ever more new (perhaps newly released from prison) freelance “recyclers” who appear out of nowhere. Some of them are very, very angry people. People put their bins out on Sunday night, and I have repeatedly heard angry cursing and swearing by pickers who are disappointed or surprised at (possibly injured by) what they find.

The problem is that I live in a student neighborhood, and there is a lot of drinking going on, with zero concern for bottle and can deposits. This creates an opportunity for the riffraff, and an incentive to rifle through everything. They also have a keen eye for other things that might be there for the taking (another reason never to throw away personal information which could be used by identity thieves), and many of them use carts purloined from the local grocery store.

The local grocery store is of course compelled by law to refund the ten cents to anyone showing up with the cans or bottles, and they have a “recycling” area in the back of the store where you can feed them into giant machines which issue a ticket for the total redeemable for cash at the register. Unfortunately, this is located at the back of the store, which means the smelly derelicts are pushing their carts past the ranks of the cleaner people who are only there to buy groceries. It’s one of those “social problems” that no one wants to do anything about, least of all the store managers, who have to comply with the law but obviously don’t like it.

Another lovely feature is the way these intoxicated assholes unpack bins and make a mess of everything. It is bad enough to find my trash in my own yard, but a few weeks ago, I was infuriated to discover my “reject” bottles (which lack the magical Michigan label) thrown onto the lawn of the nearest lot where there is a street light! The picker obviously couldn’t read the label in front of my house as it was too dark, but once he saw that they weren’t redeemable, he just figured he’d throw them wherever he was. I hate having to pick up my bottles (trust me, I know they’re mine, as it’s a beer not sold in Michigan which I buy as a special treat) from a neighbor’s yard, and I hate whoever the hell did this. I would love to see whoever it is punished. But there never can or will be any sort of legal punishment, because derelicts who commit summary quality of life offenses are one of the classes exempt from the law. In order to be arrested for things like littering or taking a leak (or even a dump) in public, you have to be middle class and capable of showing up in court and paying the fine. Otherwise the cops won’t bother. And not only is there no incentive for them to bother with a filthy derelict, there are major disincentives. For starters, the guy will stink up the officer’s nice police car and maybe throw up in it, or give the officer bedbugs or lice. And if the officer were dumb enough to write a citation, the derelict will most likely never show up, never pay the fine, and the likely result would be that the officer would learn from his superiors (unofficially and off the record, of course) that if he wants to be promoted, he’d best not mess with “the homeless.” Or illegal aliens, and other exempt classes.

As to why law-abiding, middle-class, tax-paying citizens have to be the chumps in this equation, beats me. I lack a degree in social welfare, so I don’t have the right credentials for my opinion to to be worthy of consideration by the ruling class. Hell, I am not even considered a journalist by the courts!

Still, I have a First Amendment right to say that for me at least, recycling sucks, and there is no easy solution.