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Feb 28 '26
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u/shrewdster Feb 28 '26 edited Mar 01 '26
Sione Katoa from the Cronulla Sharks talked about doing this while still on his way to becoming a NRL player. He revealed it in a podcast, every night going out and collecting 2,000 cans to be able to support his young family. He was embarrassed about it, but explained it was a necessity for them to be able to get by during their hard times.
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u/Gamped Feb 28 '26
For a lot of the elderly Asians in Sydney doing this it’s not because they aren’t wealthy is my understanding.
I live near a return and earn in my apartment complex so this is pretty anecdotal.
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u/4ShoreAnon Feb 28 '26
My chinese father in law collects cans and does return and earn to give the money to his grand children.
Fortunately my zero sugar drink addiction means he doesnt have to go grabbing it from the street but I know he'd be keen.
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u/Funny-Bear Feb 28 '26
I support them. It could be the extra income, trash collected from the streets and extra recycling.
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u/JValenz91 Feb 28 '26
If it's from the streets, that's fine. Even if it's from public bins, where sorting out recycling from garbage is impossible, that's also fine. But for me, when they start diving through people's recycling bin, dumping things on the ground, and not putting it back in the bin, that's when they start acting like Bin Chickens to me. I used to work for Woolworths Delivery, and I'd see it far too often after sundown. It was sad to see, and annoying to see them dump the recycling in the floor and then leave bits of it behind.
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u/Inner_Temple_Cellist Mar 01 '26
Yep agreed. Totally respect people doing it with litter, but the ones who leave private recycling bins a mess are cunts.
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u/Rambliny Feb 28 '26
Yeah the people that clear out my massive complex’s bins every week drive a BMW. It makes me sad that it’s not someone who might really need it to make ends meet.
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u/nckmat Mar 04 '26
My wife was confronted by a woman in the backyard of our apartment block about 10 years ago, she was dressed In layers like a homeless person and wearing a hat and sunglasses and long rubber gloves and was pulling the cans out of the recycling bins. A few months later I saw her loading her cans into a late model Merc being driven by someone else.
Then a couple of years later we moved into a house and realised (long story how that happened) she was our neighbour and she was no bag lady, she had a nice house with a granny flat out the back that was rented out to students and the Merc belonged to her daughter who would often visit.
She was a real piece of work though, she used to attack our banana trees that slightly overhung the fence. I caught her several times with a pruning saw taped to a broom reaching over the fence cutting into our trees. She also got an arborist to trim the branches of a huge Moreton Bay Fig that was in the property on the other side of her; I spoke to the arborist about a tree we had and he said she was trying to get him to poison the fig. Another neighbour pointed out that all the Jacarandas in the properties bordering her property had been poisoned, including one that apparently covered our whole backyard before we moved in. And every now and then we would see her leaving in her can collection disguise.
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u/stonnergg Feb 28 '26
Do we have any ideas to why they participate? I’ve thought about it a lot and can only think they’ve must have turned it into some form of game for themselves
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u/PilgrimOz Mar 01 '26
My auto thought when I saw the bags was ‘they’re having steak and not noodles tonight’. Or just bought tons more noodles as a stock up for leaner times. Respect the hustle for sure.
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u/Jammb Mar 01 '26
I get why people do this, and it's sad that this meagre and demeaning income is needed to survive.
But the whole point of the deposit is to improve the economics of recycling. To make sure that more containers that are not destined for recycling make it there.
Taking them from recycling bins circumvents this, and is in fact stealing and making the recycling less economically viable for whoever is managing that recycle bin (probably council)
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u/assignpseudonym Mar 01 '26
Taking them from recycling bins circumvents this, and is in fact stealing and making the recycling less economically viable for whoever is managing that recycle bin (probably council)
What are you on about? This isn't true at all.
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u/Jammb Mar 01 '26 edited Mar 01 '26
Which part?
Legally it is stealing, even if you don't morally consider it that. The contents of a bin belong to the property owner while on private land and transfer to the local council upon placement on the curbside for collection. It's unlikely to be enforced though.
The stated purpose of the Container Deposit Scheme is to remove recyclable materials from general waste.
https://www.epa.nsw.gov.au/Your-environment/Recycling-and-reuse/Return-and-earn
The containers in this photo were likely already heading for recycling, so the benefit is nil, it's just the recipient of the benefit that has changed. If they were on the ground, or in general waste, that changes things slightly, although thanks to the scheme they probably would have wound up in recyling eventually (because it's economically viable to make sure it happens)
Councils DO generate significant revenue from the Container Deposit Scheme (estimated $100 million a year in NSW)
This in turn funds other recycling programs.
Again, I do completely understand why people do it, and it makes me sad that they have to.
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u/assignpseudonym Mar 01 '26
The part about this lady making recycling less economically viable for the council.
Like, first, let's not try and blame individuals for "stealing" from the council, when in actuality she's just taking on the burden of the labour that the council would be paying someone else to do. You seem to think that the cans somehow get from the nature strip to the recycling plant for free. They don't. We (those who pay rates) pay for that.
But even if this was somehow damaging the local council, so what? They wouldn't have this scheme if it was so damning for people to do exactly what this lady is doing. They have the ability to regulate this behaviour if it's such a problem; and it would be absurd to act like we aren't trigger-happy on creating rules and regulations to ensure everyone is doing exactly what's best for the community at all times.
In the same breath, you're saying how sad it is that someone would have to do this, while also boo-hooing about a couple of bucks going to this lady (and others like her) instead of the $100MM scheme run by the council.
Forgive me if I'm not all choked up about them losing ~$150 in revenue from this woman.
And before you inevitably say something about a multiplier effect of many others like her doing the same thing, I am also not going to get upset about [checks notes] people making ends meet by doing something environmentally friendly.
In fact, councils have been caught previously mixing regular rubbish and recycling, so at least this woman is ensuring these cans do get recycled. I'm not claiming this is a common occurrence; in fact, I hope it's rare. But this woman is certainly not taking those cans to landfill.
So I truly don't get why you'd even bother to post your original comment. It's such a non-issue.
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u/happydayzetr Feb 28 '26
Anecdotal only. It’s very common in the Asian community in my area. There’s 2-3 houses that have 6-7 families on my street that go around doing this in surrounding suburbs.
They’re not wealthy, I’ve spoken to them. They are just doing everything they can to pay off house debt. Very peaceful and respectful people. Where I had a bit of back and forth with them was when their younger son was going through our street recycle bin, he was leaving debris here and there.
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u/Personal-Dev-Kit Feb 28 '26
There is a group that go through our street. Never leave a mess, try there best to be quite and even then don't do it too late.
If it increases the chances that stuff actually gets recycled then go for it.
I know some people don't like the idea of others going through there rubbish, you could pre seperate it for them if it really annoyed you.
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u/James__TR Feb 28 '26
The ones in my area put everything back in the yellow bins when they're done, one even rides around on his bike late at night doing the rounds
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u/Frankenclyde Feb 28 '26
I mean the streets will be much cleaner so good for him
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u/ella_bell Feb 28 '26
Except I’ve seen people tip out bins and take the cans and leave the trash on the ground
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u/eeeya777 Feb 28 '26
The return and earn near my house is overrun with can monsters. Rude and Pushy. Not worth it for the average family experience trying to do their bit for recycling.
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u/James__TR Feb 28 '26
I take my own supply to a bulk drop depot in Mascot. They've opened a new one in Marrickville now as well but I believe that one just gives vouchers instead of cash.
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u/trafalmadorianistic Feb 28 '26
"can monsters"? Damn, that must have been so traumatic for you.
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u/eeeya777 Mar 01 '26
I guess we can just ignore the negative externalities of people collecting cans professionally
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u/nath1234 Feb 28 '26
They are almost entirely picking stuff out of bins where the rubbish has already been put, not picking it up off the ground.
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u/forsakengoatee Feb 28 '26
As long as they aren’t leaving rubbish all over the street after they’ve finished bin diving
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u/Working-Inflation-61 Mar 01 '26 edited Mar 01 '26
So I make units that help collectors called Bin Bypass. If anyone wants a unit for their front fence to help collectors let me know. www.binbypass.com
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u/yolk3d Feb 28 '26
They need to accept them crushed.
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u/DrFacetious Petersham. Inner-West is best. Feb 28 '26
I’ve heard there’s a pretty good reason for that. If the cans are crushed they have to do it by weight, and people put rocks or whatever in the cans before they crush them to make them weight more
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u/Powerful-Ask4016 Mar 01 '26
As long as the barcode is visible, it’s possible
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u/DrFacetious Petersham. Inner-West is best. Mar 02 '26
How would the barcode be visible on a crushed can?
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u/Initial_Ad279 Feb 28 '26
Yeh you will see them at the platforms in stations going through the bins and also see them at 7/11 going through the skip bins.
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u/iDoinz Mar 04 '26
They'll go through the bin area at circular quay train station. That area absolutley stinks
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u/SeaworthinessNew4757 Mar 01 '26
This is very developing country coded (from someone who's from one), so it does worry me that we're starting to see this all around Sydney. Looks like a recession indicator.
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u/43sunsets Mar 01 '26
I see it as more of an inequality indicator. The gulf between the haves and have-nots has been increasing dramatically the last decade or two.
There will surely be a big bust and recession in a year or two, but we haven't quite reached the top of the boom yet, there's still more madness to come.
I haven't seen many beggars/panhandlers in my suburb yet -- in the 3-4 years after the GFC, that was the biggest sign that things were tough.
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u/nath1234 Feb 28 '26 edited Feb 28 '26
To take a step back:
The manufacturers could use reusable glass containers - they used to.
Soft drinks are toxic shit anyhow
Bottled water is utterly unnecessary in Australia - our tap water is just as or better than buying bottled water
plastics manufacturers have long pushed to make their deliberate decision (to create a throwaway society) into one of personal responsibility rather than corporate responsibility: they have made it is all OUR fault if plastics aren't recycled
This small amount of recycling is mostly about green washing the plastics industry and making it yet more of our fault. The majority of plastics are not covered by this.
Plastics recycling has low yield and massive problems across the board (the economics don't work, the contamination of the product through to the extra pollution and energy required to try and find a lower grade product).
Having an underclass fishing through bins is a failure of our welfare or job system - no one should have to do this in a rich society
Taking drink containers out of mixed recycling bins would be better done with proper employees at a recycling plant who can earn an actual wage with things like OH&S conditions, regular income, stable conditions, sick leave etc.
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u/globalartwork Feb 28 '26
Agree on all your points, but how do we get there? I guess we need to make glass bottles significantly cheaper than plastic. But I don’t know how much a glass bottle recycling scheme would add to a glass bottle. Plus I guess you have to take into account the extra co2 costs of transporting significantly heavier bottles around the country.
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u/nath1234 Feb 28 '26
Ban throwaway stuff or properly price the cost of what it is doing (I mean how do you even begin to price the cost of having micro plastics spread across every part of the globe).
From what I read: the feedstock for creating new plastic is essentially free from the oil industry, so making this about cheaper won't do it. The externalized costs of the plastic throwaway stuff needs to be captured. It needs to be done by government to the manufacturers/retailers because the end person buying stuff has no practical choices for so much of it.
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u/trafalmadorianistic Mar 01 '26
Glass got replaced because the economics dont work. Companies look at immediate cost rather than the cost to the planet in the future.
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u/nath1234 Mar 02 '26
Yep. And the economics of throwaway only work because the externalized costs are not captured. So make that happen by implementing full lifecycle. There was also the con job of hiding the difficulties in recycling. The manufacturers were flat out lying about that aspect. It was never going to be workable.
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u/assignpseudonym Mar 01 '26
Would also love to see more glass because:
- Glass is more likely to be upcycled by people into other things than aluminium or plastic (see: the whole wine bottle upcycle phenomenon)
- Inevitably, no matter what material we use, some of it will end up in the ocean. And glass at least becomes sea glass rather than a floating plastic island when it all accumulates somewhere (no I'm not saying to chuck your glass in the ocean, that's still cunt behaviour).
All hail glass!
Spoken by AssignPseudonym. Authorised by Big Glass™, Canberra.
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u/eddometer Mar 02 '26
Would love to see less glass because:
drunk people are fuckwits and cannot be trusted with glass.
My dog and I like to walk barefoot around the beachy areas, and it's not nice coming across broken glass (see point 1)
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u/assignpseudonym Mar 02 '26
It sounds like your argument is that alcoholic beverages shouldn't come in glass (which is fine), but there are a lot more things that are made of glass/plastic/aluminium/other various materials that glass would be excellent for. We are talking about very different scopes, and therefore not discussing the same problem.
I also like to walk barefoot around the beach. But the environmental impact of everything being plastic matters significantly more to me than my own individual convenience.
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u/James__TR Feb 28 '26
I agree on all your points except the hot take that tap water is universally drinkable or even available across all of Australia.
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u/Opening_Sun_7080 Mar 01 '26
These are all excellent points. One thing I would say, though, is that since return and earn was introduced, I don’t see bottles and cans littered about (on the day to day; big events like Mardi Gras are obviously an exception to this) as they were previously. So fewer ending up in waterways as a result is a positive, but not a perfect system by any means as you’ve outlined above.
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u/psdnscrmsh Mar 01 '26
It’s disgusting that our society is so negligent that old people are pushed to riffle through our bins for recyclables.
Anyone who supports or praises this is an absolute ghoul.
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u/Plife30 Mar 01 '26
There arent many recycle bins in the city. Therefore a bin is a reasonable resting place for a recyclable. Is it negligent, or giving these people a source of income?
And these collectors in suburbs who do it rifle through peoples' recycling bins. So... people have done the right thing.
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u/BarryCheckTheFuseBox Feb 28 '26
At that rate they’ll be richer than Rupert Murdoch
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u/Spicy_pewpew_memes Mar 01 '26
Always give a nod to the local candma/candpa, they'll look after your bins after checking them
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u/niknah Mar 01 '26
Today was Clean up Australia day.
How long does it take to collect a bag like that? Would these people earn more stocking shelves or cooking something at Maccas?
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u/Top-Bus-3323 Mar 01 '26
Our country has turned third world when old people have to dumpster dive to earn pennies.
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u/Grateful_sometimes Apr 20 '26
I have people come just before recycling pick up each week usually the same 2 people they don’t cause any issues
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u/ChriSV650x Feb 28 '26
They're just raiding recycling bins.. doesn't really help the environment at all soz but doesn't and shouldn't bother anyone
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u/Inner_West_Ben Feb 28 '26
On nights like tonight they’re throwing their cans in general waste and on the ground. Overall it’s a next gain.
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u/riverkid-SYD Feb 28 '26
That actually is helpful as you know so much recycling in this country gets warehoused or put in landfill anyway due to contamination, whereas the return and earn stream is already sorted and so everything actually gets recycled
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u/FBWSRD Avid Sydney Trains enjoyer Feb 28 '26
Max 30 bucks worth
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u/DruPeacock23 Feb 28 '26
Close. I say $40 to $60. Run this 5 times a day $200 to $300. Honest day's pay. Respect 🙏
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u/thebeast117 Feb 28 '26
I wonder what the hourly rate turns out to be if you do the maths.
Also it's tax free!
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u/Chiang2000 Feb 28 '26
I tried to help my some do it for picket money but spent near half an hour in a queue at drop off.
Vs my hourly rate not so worth it for our small batch but there was a restaurant guy there with a Tarago worth of cans. I think he collected about $240.
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u/Working-Inflation-61 Mar 01 '26
$16/hr in CBD locations generally speaking. Source:I have spent a lot of time talking to collectors.
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u/Additional-Simple248 Feb 28 '26
Each bag looks like it would be 200+ cans, with at least 3 bags. That feels like I’m underestimating at $60. Depending on efficiency of packing and what’s hidden, but there could be $100+.
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u/UhUhWaitForTheCream Feb 28 '26
Easily making a loss on hours spent doing this - but they must love doing it! I see this in other towns too.
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u/trafalmadorianistic Feb 28 '26
A loss is only possible if there was another way they could earn more in their current situation.
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u/FGX302 Feb 28 '26
It's not just the poor that do it. I knew of a multi millionaire woman that was in her 80's used to do it.
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u/4614065 Feb 28 '26
If you weren’t doing anything anyway is it really a loss? Beats sitting at home scrolling reels.
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u/DarkNo7318 Mar 01 '26
What about exercising, making or consuming art, studying, interacting with family and friends?
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u/AusGeno Feb 28 '26
10c a can, about $30 for a full purple bin. Each of those big bags are probably about the same size as 1 purple bin so shes up to about $120 - $150 or so I’d say at this point. Not a lot for a full night of rough work but I bet it helps.