By Leslie Chow and Tony DeGeorge/Vision Fotos

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April 17th, 2004

Post 9.11 NYC Chinatown Economy

For the past three years, a disaster and an epidemic have economically impacted New York City’s Chinatowns. First the World Trade Center Tragedy shut down many local businesses for weeks and then slowed down revenue to just a trickle for months. Just when Chinatown’s economy had improved only marginally, the SARS epidemic broke out in the winter of 2003. Although no one actually contracted the SARS disease in NYC’s Chinatowns, the fear of SARS kept tourists and locals from shopping and dining in Manhattan’s Chinatown for the next six months.

The elderly, the weak, and those without any English language skills have suffered the most from the economic downturn in NYC’s Chinatowns. Not without resourcefulness, some elderly Chinese women have resorted to collecting recyclables: discarded beer bottles, two-liter plastic soda bottles, Marlboro cigarette boxes, and large canisters. Depending on timing, endurance, the weather, and the parties in the neighborhood, these women can collect from several dollars a day up to $50 but averaging only about $200 a month, give or take a few cans, when deposits are redeemed at food and beverage stores (under the current Bottle Bill passed in 1982, every store that sells deposit bottles is required to take back any container, provided it sells the same brand).

The extra dollars these women earn through nickel returns can make the difference in terms of food for their households, rent money, and economic survival.

Can Woman

One woman, who I will refer to as Can Woman, stands out among all the can collectors I met in the Lower East Side. For the two years that I knew her, Can Woman worked consistently seven days a week, morning to evening. Standing only four and a half feet tall in her white sneakers, Can Woman faced occupational hazards such as leftover stale beer, broken glass, funky garbage smells, and the curious stares of onlookers.

Can Woman had a knack for organization. Peering into her cart one day, I noticed that she had a system for sorting her recyclables that required one bag dedicated just for the green Heineken bottles, stacked sardine style for maximum efficiency. I wonder what could Can Woman have accomplished had she benefited from a post 9.11 job-training program? Since I’ve known her and the work she does, garbage has never looked the same to me.

Glass Is Recycled Again

It has been good news for people like Can Woman since full glass recycling has begun again on April 1st, 2004. Simple math dictates that the more wine cooler and beer bottles, the more nickel returns, the more money in the bank (or in this case in the trash bin). What would even be better for people like Can Woman is if the current Bottle Bill would expand to include more popular beverages such as bottled water, sports drinks, iced tea and fruit juices. In fact, since the Bottle Bill was passed, 1 billion dollars remains in unclaimed nickel deposits. What happened to the bottles? Did they go to the island of misfit bottles? No, the consumer no longer wanted the bottle and either threw it in the garbage or perhaps incinerated it. Currently beverage bottlers are allowed to keep the nickel from the unreturned bottle to help defray the cost of setting up and running collection systems. If the extended Bottle Bill legislation is passed, the state would like some if not all of the unclaimed nickel that the beverage bottlers are currently allowed to keep. Enter into the picture Can Woman. She and others like her remove bottles from garbage and help recycle them in return for the nickels that would otherwise go back to the bottlers—or to the state, too, if they get their cut. Both Can Woman and the state, could benefit from an expanded Bottle Bill, while people like Can Woman would not cut significantly into the state’s portion.

Conclusion

It seems that garbage is not just garbage anymore but a commodity. From the tree that you save, to the litter that you keep off the street, to the nickel you put in someone’s pocket or purse, it seems safe to say, at least for the moment that “one woman’s garbage is another woman’s treasure.”

NYC Recycling Tips

Since full glass recycling has begun again, you can help by not mixing broken glass with whole glass as it can cut fingers and hands when gathering and sorting recyclables. Another way to help is to sort your recyclables into designated trash cans: one for mixed paper and cardboard in a green labeled bin marked “RECYCLING-PAPER”, one for metal, plastic bottles, jugs and beverages in a blue labeled bin, or to the can collectors otherwise known as the money bin, marked “RECYCLING-METAL & PLASTIC”, and the third for refuse or in other words, your plain old regular garbage. For recycling program updates and schedules, you can call 311 or go to the Sanitation website at www.nyc.gov/sanitation.

Photos

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© By Leslie Chow /Vision Fotos 2004

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