Small Scale Recycling Centers
In California, you can do small scale recycling of cans and bottles at a lot of grocery stores. This actually includes Walmart and Target (at least some of them -- I have no idea if every single location participates). While on the street, I began doing small scale recycling at a particular store on a daily basis. I was typically there twice a day, every day with a small amount of recycling. Over time, my average increased to something above $2/day. Over the course of a month, that adds up to over $60 a month. If you are on the street, extra money like that can really make a difference.
This particular store has you sign a log book indicating how much you brought and how much money it was. When I first began going, most days of the week, my name was the only name there -- twice a day, every day. On weekends, there were sometimes other names but not very many.
On more than one occasion, someone either asked me a question or commented about the fact that they had not known you could bring your recycling to this store. Plus I was just there twice a day, every day and people saw me doing that. Over time, people who shopped at this store became more aware that they could take their recycling there. Lo and behold, I began to see more signatures in the book. It became a routine, daily thing to see more than just my name in the log book. There were still more signatures on weekends than on weekdays, but the pattern definitely changed.
Use increased so much that they ended up overhauling how they handled recycling. It had originally been handled very casually because it happened so seldom. With it becoming so much more common, they set up an area up front with three containers (one for plastic bottles, one for glass bottles, one for cans) and got more organized.
When I first began going, some of the store staff said inappropriate, judgmental things to me about "Why don't you just let it pile up somewhere and come in with a big pile once in a while?" A lot of people don't immediately realize I am homeless. I am often mistaken for being middle class or a tourist. (I was recently asked at a different store why I drive there every day for what is usually less than a dollar. I replied that I don't drive. I walk everywhere.) I was polite, respectful, and friendly but I did not get into the fact that I was homeless, it was none of their business, etc. Over time, the way the staff interacted with me changed. For one thing, they stopped asking inappropriate, intrusive questions.
I also noticed incidents that convinced me that how I interacted with them made a positive change in how they interacted with other homeless individuals as well. For example, shortly before I left, I witnessed one individual at the store who was kind of a neat-nick and did not like handling the recycling offer hand sanitizer to a very obviously filthy homeless man in a way that came across as supportive and helpful instead of judgmental and rejecting. I always used hand sanitizer after handling recycling and I was big on washing my hands and very neat and I was very understanding of the fact that this man was very particular.
When I first began going to this store with my recycling, there were sometimes homeless people sitting out front at some tables outside. They tended to be ill behaved and were often sitting there with nothing to eat or drink, just hanging out. They looked very desperate and they tended to be troublemakers.
After general signatures began going up, I began to also see homeless people in there with recyclables on a fairly regular basis. And the character of homeless folks in the general area began to change in a positive way. They were less desperate. They were less socially weird. They were more likely to be sitting out front at the tables with something to eat or drink. Cans and bottles in the general region quit being a chronic littering problem because homeless people would pick them up and take them in for money.
So small scale recycling is a way to directly put legal money into the hands of homeless individuals for honest work on a flexible schedule. And if those small scale recycling centers are in grocery stores (or stores like Walmart and Target that also sell groceries), it's can be convenient and accessible.
If you are in a place that has this, you can make it more visible by simply making use of it. If you go frequently with a small amount and dress down (in t-shirts and other casual clothing), you can make it more obvious to others that it exists and also help blur the line between homeless and non-homeless, which helps reduce social barriers to homeless individuals. You can set the expectation that this is a normal thing to do and make it that much easier for homeless individuals to get the idea and not feel like that's something for people with money, not for people like them.
If you work at a store where this is done, you can be cordial, polite and respectful and try to engage the homeless like any other customer. One of the things that makes homelessness a hard problem to solve is that once you are on the street, you are excluded from normal, polite society and you start a) going crazy from social isolation and b) losing your social graces. Do not be more warm and friendly to them than to other customers. It can set an unrealistic expectation for them and actively prevent them from learning more socially appropriate behavior. But also do not be less warm and friendly. Be just as cordial and friendly in a professional manner as you would be with any other customer.
This particular store has you sign a log book indicating how much you brought and how much money it was. When I first began going, most days of the week, my name was the only name there -- twice a day, every day. On weekends, there were sometimes other names but not very many.
On more than one occasion, someone either asked me a question or commented about the fact that they had not known you could bring your recycling to this store. Plus I was just there twice a day, every day and people saw me doing that. Over time, people who shopped at this store became more aware that they could take their recycling there. Lo and behold, I began to see more signatures in the book. It became a routine, daily thing to see more than just my name in the log book. There were still more signatures on weekends than on weekdays, but the pattern definitely changed.
Use increased so much that they ended up overhauling how they handled recycling. It had originally been handled very casually because it happened so seldom. With it becoming so much more common, they set up an area up front with three containers (one for plastic bottles, one for glass bottles, one for cans) and got more organized.
When I first began going, some of the store staff said inappropriate, judgmental things to me about "Why don't you just let it pile up somewhere and come in with a big pile once in a while?" A lot of people don't immediately realize I am homeless. I am often mistaken for being middle class or a tourist. (I was recently asked at a different store why I drive there every day for what is usually less than a dollar. I replied that I don't drive. I walk everywhere.) I was polite, respectful, and friendly but I did not get into the fact that I was homeless, it was none of their business, etc. Over time, the way the staff interacted with me changed. For one thing, they stopped asking inappropriate, intrusive questions.
I also noticed incidents that convinced me that how I interacted with them made a positive change in how they interacted with other homeless individuals as well. For example, shortly before I left, I witnessed one individual at the store who was kind of a neat-nick and did not like handling the recycling offer hand sanitizer to a very obviously filthy homeless man in a way that came across as supportive and helpful instead of judgmental and rejecting. I always used hand sanitizer after handling recycling and I was big on washing my hands and very neat and I was very understanding of the fact that this man was very particular.
When I first began going to this store with my recycling, there were sometimes homeless people sitting out front at some tables outside. They tended to be ill behaved and were often sitting there with nothing to eat or drink, just hanging out. They looked very desperate and they tended to be troublemakers.
After general signatures began going up, I began to also see homeless people in there with recyclables on a fairly regular basis. And the character of homeless folks in the general area began to change in a positive way. They were less desperate. They were less socially weird. They were more likely to be sitting out front at the tables with something to eat or drink. Cans and bottles in the general region quit being a chronic littering problem because homeless people would pick them up and take them in for money.
So small scale recycling is a way to directly put legal money into the hands of homeless individuals for honest work on a flexible schedule. And if those small scale recycling centers are in grocery stores (or stores like Walmart and Target that also sell groceries), it's can be convenient and accessible.
If you are in a place that has this, you can make it more visible by simply making use of it. If you go frequently with a small amount and dress down (in t-shirts and other casual clothing), you can make it more obvious to others that it exists and also help blur the line between homeless and non-homeless, which helps reduce social barriers to homeless individuals. You can set the expectation that this is a normal thing to do and make it that much easier for homeless individuals to get the idea and not feel like that's something for people with money, not for people like them.
If you work at a store where this is done, you can be cordial, polite and respectful and try to engage the homeless like any other customer. One of the things that makes homelessness a hard problem to solve is that once you are on the street, you are excluded from normal, polite society and you start a) going crazy from social isolation and b) losing your social graces. Do not be more warm and friendly to them than to other customers. It can set an unrealistic expectation for them and actively prevent them from learning more socially appropriate behavior. But also do not be less warm and friendly. Be just as cordial and friendly in a professional manner as you would be with any other customer.