Homeless in Vancouver: Half empty bottles

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      Someone’s been practicing with a glass cutter!

      It’s rare to see sliced-up glass bottles in a container bin. But, even though they can no longer can be returned for their deposit value, at least they’re in the right place.

      You never know what you’ll see when you lift the lid on a blue container bin. People put the darnedest things in with their recycling—really inappropriate stuff that makes you wonder what they were thinking.

      Broccoli is a container becauseit contains…vitamins?

      Mostly it seems people read “container” to mean anything made of plastic, glass, or metal.

      Old CD jewel cases, DVD cases, frying pans, coat hangers, plastic bags, cutlery, housewares in general, toasters, toaster ovens, vacuum cleaners, TV sets, and of course, the odd salad spinner—the list of inappropriate non-container things tossed everyday into container recycling blue bins is endless.

      After nearly 20 years, many Vancouverites still seem to have no clear idea what should go into the container bins, in part because the city has changed its mind and its bin signage so many times over the years.

      But saying people don’t know what should go into the bins is the same as saying they don’t know what shouldn’t.

      So in the absence of hard knowledge people apparently see no reason not to be optimistic.

      Stanley Q. Woodvine is a homeless resident of Vancouver who has worked in the past as an illustrator, graphic designer, and writer.

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