Pulling bottles from your neighbor's recycle bin - thrifty or across the line?

Williams 728
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This discussion reminds me of this film: [ame="http://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HlFP-PMW6E"]http://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HlFP-PMW6E[/ame]
 
Where I live the trash is personal property until the waste department picks it up. Police cannot look at it until it is in the trash truck, and police give out tickets to people who take from the recycle bin.

That said, I don't want bottles all the time and I leave a note on their door of those who have the better bottles asking if I can have some of them sometimes. If so please put this sticker on your recycle bucket. No sticker? then I don't take bottles. I do leave finished beers on their porch every now and then.
 
I would completely blindside him with a separate issue that will take his mind off of the "OMG I wonder if he knows that I'm an alcoholic?" thing.

Example:

"Hey, do you mind if I collect some wine bottles from your recycle bin every once in a while? I use them to masturbate with."

"WHAT?!"

"I'm just kidding. I'm a homebrewer and I use them for bottling up beer."

"Oh. Well...okay then."
 
LandoLincoln said:
I would completely blindside him with a separate issue that will take his mind off of the "OMG I wonder if he knows that I'm an alcoholic?" thing.

Example:

"Hey, do you mind if I collect some wine bottles from your recycle bin every once in a while? I use them to masturbate with."

"WHAT?!"

"I'm just kidding. I'm a homebrewer and I use them for bottling up beer."

"Oh. Well...okay then."
Click to expand...

He goes, "Well what a coincidence, I also masturbate with these after I pound back a few. Who knew there was others out there, especially right next door?!"

Op- "Nevermind.... goodbye." *tosses all 50 previously collected bottles back into neighbors recycling*

Seriously though just ask the guy. I guarantee he won't think you know he is an alcoholic or that you might find out. At least my first thought would be damn, my neighbors brews wine... I wonder how I can get as most out of him as possible... Possibly give him my empties for a bottle or two. I would be pretty angry and weirded out though if I woke up in the middle of the night and my neighbor was going through my trash. I only am close to one or two of my neighbors though, and they would ask to dig through my trash... at least I think so..
 
jasonsbeer said:
When garbage hits the curb, it's public property. Raid the whole neighborhood.
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hahahaha THIS!! because its TRUE. no longer his\her property. I find people taking stuff i put out to the curb, and hey, one man's trash.... Now i would not walk up on someones porch or side of the house ect.. but once it hits the curb.. its ON!!
 
So this is how I decided to handle the situation. I didn't give up my identity or create a scenario where he must talk about his high level of consumption to anyone he knows, yet I still made a gesture of mutual benefit. I also may have created a scenario for which there is no legal precedent. If he enters into this agreement with me by means of written consent (or possibly by lack of written non-consent), to leave his bottles for me in his recycling bin, then who is to legally challenge me about collecting them?

I'm sure that anybody with a law or business degree could shoot this down, but my goal isn't really to be technically and legally right. It's to get bottles while being as ethical and polite about it as possible. I think I've accomplished that.

Just left the bottles on his porch with the note about 30min ago.

IMAG1238.jpg


IMAG1239.jpg
 
strantor said:
So this is how I decided to handle the situation. I didn't give up my identity or create a scenario where he must talk about his high level of consumption to anyone he knows, yet I still made a gesture of mutual benefit. I also may have created a scenario for which there is no legal precedent. If he enters into this agreement with me by means of written consent (or possibly by lack of written non-consent), to leave his bottles for me in his recycling bin, then who is to legally challenge me about collecting them?

I'm sure that anybody with a law or business degree could shoot this down, but my goal isn't really to be technically and legally right. It's to get bottles while being as ethical and polite about it as possible. I think I've accomplished that.

Just left the bottles on his porch with the note about 30min ago.
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Very cool idea!
 
weirdboy said:
Well I have an idea why someone could be angry.

I pay some amount every month (roughly ~$70) for trash hauling and recycling for my building. However, without the bottles & cans in the recycling, that could cost me even more because some of the money the trash company earns is through recovered deposits on those bottles & cans. Here in CA, the redemption value on a 12oz bottle or can is 5 cents, and on larger bottles (e.g. a 750ml bottle) the value goes up to 10 cents. In other words, people taking bottles & cans from my recycling indirectly raises my trash bill every month.

Now if it's JUST my recycling bin being pored over every week, that probably doesn't do much to impact my bill. But suppose every week some enterprising individual decides to go down the street and collect every single bottle & can from every bin on the street. Suddenly, we're talking about a lot of money going into that individual's pocket, and coming out of my neighborhood's collective pockets. I mean, potentially hundreds of dollars every week. My neighborhood is essentially paying that guy's rent every month. Do I want to pay for some guy's rent that pulls crap out of my trash and makes a mess in my driveway every week? Probably not.
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Overkill :cross:
 
I don't personally give a rip if the recycling company makes more or less money. If something I don't need is getting reused instead of recycled I would be ecstatic.

I've never had the need to take bottles from anyone's bin, but previous to this thread it would not have occurred to me to ask. Seems to me you guys are pretty tightly wound. Someone needs something you have no use for why do you care if they take it.
 
Turns out the old man knew who was taking his bottles all along. Since I made the gesture, he decided to give them to me instead of letting me fish them out of the bin. This morning I opened the front door to see my daughter off to the bus stop and by chance he was standing there on my porch holding a six-pack of wine bottles. He was in the middle of dropping them there ninja-style, and I caught him. We shook hands, said good morning, and I said thanks. Made some small talk, and he went on his way. So, crisis averted, and I now receive the bottles in an indisputably legal and consensual way.
 
Homercidal said:
The recyclers are still getting screwed (according to some here...) ;)
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Not if it is like my trash/recycling company. I pay extra to have a recycle bin and have them pick it up. They make money whether I choose to put anything in there or not. Besides, it is not like we have a contractual agreement that I must give all recyclables to them or that I have to give them a certain amount.
 
strantor said:
Turns out the old man knew who was taking his bottles all along. Since I made the gesture, he decided to give them to me instead of letting me fish them out of the bin. This morning I opened the front door to see my daughter off to the bus stop and by chance he was standing there on my porch holding a six-pack of wine bottles. He was in the middle of dropping them there ninja-style, and I caught him. We shook hands, said good morning, and I said thanks. Made some small talk, and he went on his way. So, crisis averted, and I now receive the bottles in an indisputably legal and consensual way.
Click to expand...

Great story, glad this thread has a happy ending all around :mug:
 
Glad things ended well.

As far as grabbing things goes...it's par for the course in WI. EVERY trash day, people drive around and pick up stuff... EVERY TIME. Normally they are looking for scrap metal or mechanical things they intend to fix up and sell. Once it hits the curb, I fully expect people will pick it up. Actually, I remember recently throwing out some old lamps (metal) and they were gone within the hour. Obviously it was the neighbors across the way who picked it up. They weren't hiding, I didn't care.

You all don't have those old guys driving around old trucks picking stuff up in your neighborhoods?


PS as a noob, I've been tempted...but apparently all my neighbors are miller/coors/bud can drinkers :-(
 
Revvy said:
I found, that once my neighbors knew I brewed they started saving me bottles. Especially after I shared my beers with them. In fact it was funny in the loft I used to live in, I'd come home from work and have a bunch of bottles (usually really cool ones like Grolsh Bottles or bombers) from out building super. He'd let himself in and leave them for me. It got so that I told him whenever he did that, to go ahead and take a couple of my beers out of the fridge for his trouble. I did tell him to only take from the front of the beer shelf, never the back or the sides, or any other part of the fridge, because they may not have been ready yet or something I was saving. But if it was at the front of the mid shelf to help himself.

He was never greedy, never took more than a couple, but would always leave me bottles of his.
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Neighbors helping neighbors. This is what I'm talking about.
 
Homercidal said:
A recycle bin for work may go to a place that PAYS the company for the metals (I can tell that they most assuredly do.)

A recyce bin for a homeowner is different in that they do not get paid for the materials being recycled. As far as I know, placing stuff next to the curb for pickup is an indication that they are being disposed of and that the owner is giving up ownership.
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Around here the homeowner doesn't get paid, per se, for the recyclables but none the less there is a business arrangement between the recycler and the homeowner.

The County operates the recycling center. The business arrangement is that they pick it up for free for the rights to have it and sell it. So, to take from the recycling bin around here is basically stealing from the County. Not that I think it's a particularly egregious crime but, technically, I think it would be a crime.
 
If the title is any indication the thread was never about a specific case, it was always an example to discuss the issue in general.
 
Really. What more can be said?

Posting about it now is nothing more than wanting to hear yourself talk.

But, carry on.
 
CGVT said:
Really. What more can be said?

Posting about it now is nothing more than wanting to hear yourself talk.

But, carry on.
Click to expand...

The specific case has been resolved, but the moral/ethical/legal discussion can still continue to be debated.
 
Sure it can. If you want to beat a dead horse.

If you have a new argument on the moral/ethical or legal dimension of the issue, make it.

If you do, it will be the first new thought on it in about 50 posts

If you don't you are just posting to hear yourself talk.

Have at it.
 
CGVT said:
Sure it can. If you want to beat a dead horse.

If you have a new argument on the moral/ethical or legal dimension of the issue, make it.

If you do, it will be the first new thought on it in about 50 posts

If you don't you are just posting to hear yourself talk.

Have at it.
Click to expand...

The guy who you posted the dead horse picture in response to was doing just that. Was on topic and you came out and were a complete jerk. Just calm down.
 
CGVT said:
Sure it can. If you want to beat a dead horse.

If you have a new argument on the moral/ethical or legal dimension of the issue, make it.

If you do, it will be the first new thought on it in about 50 posts

If you don't you are just posting to hear yourself talk.

Have at it.
Click to expand...


Hypocrisy at its finest.
 
One mans trash is another mans treasure! If its considered stealing in your county or city then maybe the county or city should kick down on the initial cost of said recyclables. Help me buy a case of beer or wine and you're more than welcome to claim empties! Otherwise ill do what I want with my empties, give them away, let people take them, or... Gasp... Smash them at the bottom of the trash bin never to be reused again. Lol
 
Ha ha...this is great. Just scored 3 Carlos Rossi jugs from my neighbor. Perfect timing. Another round of JAOM batches are in my weekend plans.
 
I appologize for not reading the enire thread in advance. If I had a neighbor who was thrwing away usable glass I would approach him and infect him with our addiction. It would not be too difficult to get him involved, invite him over on a brewin and bottle day and he will leave with a huge appreciation of what you do and either save you the bottles outright or start brewing too. Either way you will get some indirect or direct help and maybe a brew partner in you own neighborhood. Think of all the improvements you could help him make to your brew tower or single tier. You would have a laboratory to test new ideas and help a brother get more beer too. Just a thought from the peanut gallery...

Wheelchair Bob
 
Yesfan said:
You got me there, but never underestimate what people would do for money. Not everyone shreds important stuff like that. I know some of my co-workers that complain about all the credit card applications they get and how they just chuck it in their recycle bins. Who knows if someone else comes along and see that and tries to take advantage of that?
Click to expand...

Yup I threw out a Paypal credit card thing that came with my paypal account. I just wanted to receive payments for some Graphic Design work and paypal was a nice option for some people. Anyways I got a bill from paypal that someone used it to buy 500$ in facebook credits. The problem was readily resolved by customer service thank god.

Anyways, I don't think there's an issue if they're on the side of the road, they are getting rid of them and they don't get a return on them since its in a bin. Ive run around grabbing the good empty beer bottles after office parties.
 
wooda2008 said:
I would be very uncomfortable with someone going through my recycling bin. Besides bottles, there are torn up credit card applications, bills, etc. ID theft is a real concern. If I see someone sneaking around my trash, they are going to have a very uncomfortable time explaining themselves.

New Englanders are also notoriously private and get cantankerous when someone trespasses on their land without permission. People have been shot with rock salt for less. (ask how I know)
Click to expand...

If your going to shoot at someone kill them, if not then handle you business with you hands. If you ask me that's kind of a cowardly thing to do, trust me once you spend 6 months of your life getting shot at you'll have a different respect for actually being shot at.
 
Ok, if they are recycling the glass, you can short-circuit the process and save some energy by re-using them immediately. No need to ask the neighbor, you are just making recycling more efficient and that is what they want.

Sorry if this has been said before.
 
I work nights in a nice hotel, after all the wedding parties are over i have free licence to scour the bottle bins for whatever i like. There's only 3 wines that have corked bottles but plenty of Bulmar's Cider Bottles, which i put through the glass washer, destroying all labels and glue, good times!
 

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