Daniel has a passion in life: Collecting bottles and cans for the five cent Oregon redemption payment. He trolls the neighborhood on recycling day looking for discarded bottles and cans. He wonders whether there will be more bottles and cans on mornings after a big TV event, like the World Series. A neighbor held a wedding reception so he was keen to get the empty bottles from that event.
This isn’t one of the more glamorous pastimes one could have. And it isn’t all that lucrative, relative to the hassle and time required. Nor is it convenient for us parents to drive him and his cache to the store to redeem them, often leaving the car smelling like beer afterwards. While his inventory builds up the side yards gets pretty junky looking.
Still, it is a good thing that Daniel is excited about something productive he can engage in. He even has a growing clientele that feeds him a regular supply of bottles and cans each week. Here he is at the neighborhood grocery store ready to redeem his supply. He has four large shopping carts full.
I think on average he pulls in $25 to $30 every other week. It’s not a big financial reward but he takes pride in the accomplishment.
Here is the wagon we bought him for his birthday a few months ago. He uses this on his collection rounds and it works well.
Sometimes we’ll wonder where he is, and discover he is in the side yard counting and sorting his inventory. We think this is not a bad alternative to traditional employment, which hasn’t worked out for him. Nice job, Daniel!
He is so into this. He plans his “rounds” way in advance. Sometimes he starts conversations with people at church who live in various neighborhoods, about their recycling day coming up. Now that he has a reputation for collecting redeemables, they know why he’s talking this way. Before that it seemed like the rantings of an unbalanced mind. In his head he’s got his “job” organized and planned carefully. He heads out the door at 5:30 a.m. to collect bottles and cans.
wonderful post!
So fun! There is a kid in our ward here who does the same thing. It was pretty exciting for me to hear that someone else has the same passion as Daniel.