RE: Another day of spring cleaning
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That's something I miss about living in Germany. Going to the local Penny's market and putting old cans and bottles into the recycling machine and being paid in cash.We need that right here in America.
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It's interesting how different countries decide to use these programs or not. Ireland didn't when I lived there. Dry mixed Recycling, cans and plastic bottles and paper went into the green bin at home and got picked up.
In Vancouver, Canada some recycling is similarly picked up kerbside but
I recycle and return the cans so as not to throw away money but would prefer not to have to pay the deposit on purchasing in the shop and just recycle in the recycling bin at home rather than bringing the cans to the recycling center.
It's bad in Vancouver, Canada because homeless people root through bins to get cans or bottles people throw away and aren't always tidy with the contents of the bins after that. So as well as having a skid row type street in Vancouver with heavy addicts and their belongings they also have trolleys and bags of cans. It's not a good look for the city residents or tourism. I would guess a large portion of deposit money collected for cans and bottles is used for drug purchasing.
I'm glad I don't live near the worst area of homeless people but yeah the recycling deposit program probably incentives homelessness to some degree and makes the city dirtier.
Really? That's surprising, because we hear nothing but good about Canada here in the states. We don't associate the type of homelessness seen in LA or SF with Vancouver of all places.
Since Canada is a socialist country unlike the US, we thought they had that problem solved, as I always said that Canada is the way America was intended to be before we lost our way.
I lived near Stuttgart, and the city was spotless with no homeless people seen in the six months I lived in Germany.
When I asked my instructors why, they said that since the area was controlled by the Green and Communist parties (of all things) and since we were in a "touristy" area near the Swiss border, that was why we weren't seeing such slums and visible homeless people.
Yeah I think the idea of tax payer funded healthcare or other services implies there would be fewer social problems but drug use of all kinds is done openly on the rough streets. And that probably encourages people with similar interests and issues to move to Vancouver to be homeless from other places in our province and get whatever support is available right now, clean needles, food etc
I'm not saying people should go to prison for drug use but people with serious problems should be forced to go to rehabilitation with proper counseling, medical care etc to get their lives back and become productive or at least live normally again and if they can't solve their problems to live independently then there could be some form of supportive housing.
As it stands Vancouver has similar problems to LA or SF and it says 6 people in our province of 5 million due of overdose every day. And the homeless population looks like it still is increasing even with over 2,000 dying a year.
My opinion above is probably anti capitalism even though I support free market economics. And I know the response is that why should I have to pay taxes to fix someone else's problem etc. And as well people have the right to make their own decisions and bear the consequences
It's not easy problem to solve but I feel like something should be done.
I don't know if Canada is socialist exactly, sort of a social democracy similar to many European countries.
That's interesting that it actually works and I feel like it is something countries should strive for