Readers respond: Save Oregon’s Bottle Bill

Our Bottle Bill is as unique as Oregon. Returning and redeeming bottles and cans has become a way of life for Oregonians, reducing litter in our beautiful state. We can’t stop it now! (“

Oregon loves its Bottle Bill, but is it dragging down Portland?

” May 26).

The redemption system is also critically important to our marginalized residents. A few friends and I have been helping our neighbors in need for five years. We assist with food and essentials and have come to know them well. Here are a few examples:

One family – a mother, father and four children – collects cans from neighbors and turns the cans in at the BottleDrop each week, supplementing their limited income;
Many elderly individuals living on only Social Security do the same. We see them regularly;
A middle-aged man collects cans each night after leaving his fulltime job. He turns them in after work the next day;
Others whose situation is more dire collect and redeem recyclables as their only means of surviving on the streets.

Many of our neighbors, both housed and unhoused, depend on the Bottle Bill to survive. Whether for grocery money, clothing for their children, gas money to get to work, summer vacation funds or to make it one more night – these folks work hard to collect and return the recyclables. They reduce trash while they are at it. We must save the Bottle Bill.

Jamie Berry

,

Milwaukie